Creating Preschool Entomologists – Bringing the Bugs Inside
When it comes to exploring bugs, you just can’t really beat bug collecting as an activity! Getting bugs into an enclosure -whether it’s the time-honored classic jar with air-holes in the lid, or something like this– allows children to look closely at the bugs to examine their characteristics. Having a barrier not only keeps the bug in one place, but it often makes little ones feel a bit less skittish.
We’re Going on a Bug Hunt
Eric Carle Author Study: The Grouchy Ladybug and The Very Clumsy Click Beetle
The Grouchy Ladybug always catches me off-guard, because it seems to be missing the “Very”. You know, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Lonely Firefly, The Very Busy Spider, The Very Clumsy Click Beetle, and…..The Grouchy Ladybug. I guess he’s just a little grouchy.
Well, this ladybug, who’s feeling a little bit grouchy, lands on the same aphid-laden leaf as another ladybug, who’s not feeling the least bit grouchy. One ladybug suggests they share, the other insists they’re all for him (I’m sure you can guess which was which). The rest of the story follows the grouchy ladybug as he goes from one creature to the next, each bigger than the one before, trying to pick a fight. He ends up trying to pick a fight with a whale, whose tail smacks him all the way back to that same aphid-laden leaf. There, the polite ladybug offers again to share, and this time Mr. Grouchy realizes his life is much easier when he tries to get along.
Butterfly Noodles
Isn’t it funny how children are much more interested in eating something when it’s has a fun name? I have a hard time getting my children to eat Farfalle Alle Erbe Panna Rosa (a tasty little recipe from my sister-in-law you can find here), but if I call it “Butterfly Noodles”, they’re all over it!
Eric Carle Author Study: The Very Busy Spider and The Very Lonely Firefly
Eric Carle’s The Very Busy Spider will always be one of my favorites because it was one of the first books I regularly read to my first son. It’s a simple story of a spider slowly building a perfect web as the barnyard animals come one by one to invite her to play. By the end of the story, the web is finished, the pesky fly has been caught, and the spider is ready for a good night’s sleep. The patterned text is great for reading with young children – invite them to join in with you!
Eric Carle Author Study: Building Your Own Very Hungry Caterpillar
If you ask anyone to make list of favorite children’s authors, Eric Carle would almost certainly be on that list. His work is both prolific and magnificent. His simple text is brought to life by colorful texture and hands-on appeal. I love talking to children about Eric Carle as we do our bug unit, because he has so many fabulous books featuring bugs!
Start off your author study by showing a picture of Eric Carle and introducing him as an author and illustrator. Explain what those words mean, and point out that the children can be authors and illustrators too. Show a wide array of Eric Carle’s books and have the children talk about what the books have in common. You could list these features on a chart paper to reinforce what has been said, as well as the concepts of print. Throughout the unit, refer back to those distinguishing features again each time you pull out an Eric Carle book to share with the children. Stock your bookshelf with a variety of Eric Carle books- not just the bug ones- and let them explore!
Preschool Math Flower Power
Here’s a quick one I’m quite sure you can take and improve on! For your flower theme, create an interactive bulletin board or flannel board activity by creating flower centers with the written numeral and corresponding number of dots. Then provide flower petals for the children to count out and place around the center, matching the dots in a one-to-one ratio. This activity supports preschool math skills like numeral recognition, counting, color recognition, and even patterning if they choose to use it that way!
Preschoolers Planting
Here’s a quick sensory table idea for your unit on plants, seeds, flowers, or gardens. Fill your sensory bin with soil – either right out of the bag, or right out of the ground. Add some pansy pony packs, hand tools, magnifiers, a few small containers with water, gloves, and even worms if you’re feeling extra organic! Let the children plant the flowers in the bin, examining the roots as they go. If they want to pull the flowers apart, examining their parts, that’s OK too!
Grow Something Together
When doing a study of seeds, plants, flowers, and gardens with children, the obvious, absolutely best activity is actually growing something from a seed! The transformation is magical and empowering to those little ones, and the applied activity really reinforces all they’ve learned about the needs of plants, and how they grow. Here are a few of my favorite planting activities!
Learning to Be a Successful Failure
Learning is risky business. Think about it. Anytime we try something new, we are destined to fail before we can succeed. A child’s first steps often end with a fall. Scraped knees and colorful bruises are the tuition many children pay as they learn to ride a bike. And no child ever picked up her first book and read it cover to cover. When we invite children to learn something new, we are indeed inviting them to be brave enough to fail, so that they can learn to succeed.
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