March week 3: BUGS

Oh man, this was definitely my favorite theme for the month, and I think Riley really enjoyed it as well.  I've got to say, I am loving doing this little themed tot school with her.  I love coming up with themes that I think will interest her, coming up with lessons and games, activities and outings.  Here's what we did for this theme:

Art:
We did a LOT of art projects.  There were so many different ideas and options here! At this age art is so much more than JUST art... it's a sensory experience, it helps Riley's hand eye coordination, we identify shapes and colors and letters and numbers, she listens to me tell her different facts about different bugs.  Here are just some of the things we made:

We were really into caterpillars and butterflies this week, so we did lots of art projects around those.  We made plastic baggie butterflies, she really liked ripping the paper and picking which color pom poms to go in there.

We pretty much write her name on all her art projects, and she now recognizes it and says "Riley!" as soon as I write it.  She will even sometimes tell me what letter comes next as I'm writing it! She also really loves having her hands traced.

Books:
We had to hit up the library for this one.  We did have a few "bug" theme books, but not enough to last for a week, and I wanted some more interesting ones, so off to the library we went.  Plus we were focusing on butterflies and caterpillars this week so I wanted some books relevant to those.

One new thing we tried this week was to incorporate books into art time. Sometimes Riley is a bit resistant to new books (she loves her old favorites) so in order to encourage her to at least listen to me read her new stories, I would read her stories and we would make our own artwork based on that story, even if it was just using the same colors that we saw.  She actually really liked it, so I think I'll continue using that as a way to introduce new books to her.

Stories, rhymes, and songs:
Little Miss Muffet, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Bringing Home Baby Bumble Bee, The ants go marching... so many more I can't even keep track!  We sang "Shoo fly" a million times because we kept getting so many flies in our house and they are driving me craaaazy!

Activities at home:
She has a magnetic bug catching puzzle which was a total hit, and she now knows: cricket, firefly, dragonfly, caterpillar, butterfly, bee, spider, ant.  Puzzles are great for pattern recognition and hand/eye coordination, as well as great for learning different kinds of bugs!  She is a pro at the wooden puzzles, so we're trying out some harder 4 piece puzzles.  She picks out the pieces that go together, and asks me to help her do them, but she will often put in the last piece.

We worked on letters: B is for bugs and butterflies, C is for caterpillars and crickets, etc...  We made bugs with playdoh and pipe cleaners and even added eyes. 

We had a lot of fun with playdoh and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" book.  I would read it to her, and then we would make what we saw... we made the caterpillar, and then made all the food that he eats!  Riley was TOTALLY into this activity- she loved making the foods, and would say "3 blue blueberries!"  Feed caterpillar... yum yum" and she'd feed her hungry caterpillar.

Outdoor fun:
We made a trip to the local plant nursery and picked up a swan plant for Riley.  It's a plant that attracts monarch butterflies, and the one we bought had a caterpillar AND a cocoon on it already.  So we planted it in her very own pot, and checked on it multiple times a day.  We watered it and talked all about caterpillars and butterflies and everything in between.  She LOVES it.  She runs out and goes "caterpillar, where are you?"  "No touching caterpillar, no touching cocoon." 

We went on a spider hunt.  We talked about spider webs and what spiders eat and counted how many legs they have. We practiced flapping our wings like a butterfly, crawling like a caterpillar, and jumping like a grasshopper.  And man can this girl jump!! 

Movie:
We watched A Bug's Life! for our movie night this week, which was pretty fun, Riley loved pointing out all the bugs she knew. Riley also loved watching this kid's youtube video about caterpillars, which you can see HERE if you are interested.

Overall, lots of activities, and lots of fun!! Next week's theme: EASTER!!!