Creepy Crawlies!

As you know, this week we are learning all about creepy crawlies.  So...you can probably guess what was waiting for Ryan and Ethan in the touch and feel.  That's right....BUGS!  We learned the different names of the bugs - preying mantis, beetles, ladybugs, caterpillars, spiders, scorpions, and a few that didn't belong in the bug family....turtles, snakes, and frogs to name a few.  We talked about their various colors and counted the legs on most of them.  Everyone seemed impressed with our pool of bugs!  

After morning circle, Ryan and Ethan worked on matching a variety of different geometric shapes to pictures made of all the shapes on a board.  It was a great review of some of the simpler shapes like triangle and square, and fun to learn the names of new shapes like hexagon and diamond.

Because of our plan to go on a bug safari in Latta park today, we followed a little bit of a different schedule this morning.  Instead of going on the playground, we stayed inside to complete our language activity.  Today we read The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle.  What better way to introduce creepy crawlies than by learning all about spiders!  This book is about a female spider who is invited to play with multiple farm animals.  However, with each invitation, she is "very busy spinning her web."  This is not only a great book to teach about spiders but also a great review of farm animals.  The repeating lines are also a perfect opportunity for you to pause and see if Ryan and Ethan can fill in the blank with the correct word.  As always, I encourage you all to read the same books at home that we read at school and try to turn reading into more of a conversation by sitting face to face so that your boys can see your face and the way you pronounce the words.  It also encourages eye contact and may help increase his attention to the book.  Also, repeat the same books over and over again.  The more Ryan and Ethan hear us talk about the topics/words in the book, the more growth in vocabulary will take place.  (The Hanen Program, 2004).

As I read the book, we counted the spiders' legs, and felt her "thin, silky web" get larger and larger as the book went on.  We learned that spiders spin webs in order to catch flies and bugs for them to eat.  We also reviewed the farm animals that try to engage the spider in play and their corresponding animal sounds.  I used picture cue cards of all the different animals in the book for Ryan and Ethan to hold in order to enhance their comprehension and attention to the book being read.   

After we finished the book, we headed to the art table to make our own special spiders.  We used pipe cleaners for the legs and counted out eight for both Ryan and Ethan.  Then we pushed the legs into a styrofoam cup, reviewing once again that spiders have eight legs, and last we added some googly eyes to complete our spider.  The spiders turned out super cute!

We summarized our lesson with the following song:

It was a beautiful day for a bug safari at the park!  We reviewed all of our park safety rules prior to our departure.  All the kiddos were instructed to hold the rope during the entire walk to the park, and everyone had to stay within the playground parameters (within the black mulch).  On our walk, we only spotted a few bugs.  One ant crawling on a turtle statue, a ladybug on Ryan's hand (so I'm told...I did not witness this particular bug!), and a bumblebee that did not make us very happy.  The lack of bugs on our hunt didn't get us down as Ryan and Ethan had a blast running, climbing, sliding, and going through the tunnels with the rest of the kiddos in the Speech Garden.  We pretended to be pirates on a pirate ship as they steered their "boat" and said, "Ahoy Matees!"  Then we settled down to some picnic tables for a picnic lunch.  Ryan and Ethan were worn out after lunch and the walk home seemed a lot longer and hotter than when we first left for our park adventure! But lots of fun was had by all!       

Wh-Questions for today:

1. How many legs do spiders have? eight

2. Where do spiders live? in webs

3. What do spiders like to eat? bugs/flies

4. How do they catch their food? in their sticky webs

5. Why didn't the spider want to play with the animals? She was very busy spinning her web.

6. On each page of the book, where is the fly?

I sent home "My Itsy Bitsy Spider Book" for you to read and color at home for additional review.  See you on Thursday to learn all about the clumsy click beetle!