March Week 1: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This weeks unit is going to be based around The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. We currently have 5 caterpillars in chrysalis preparing to emerge as Painted Lady Butterflies.


--Memory: Butterfly match game. We have a beautiful one that I ordered from Eeboo a couple years ago. But, before I remembered that (yes, I sometimes forget about great materials that I ordered, shut it ok) I was going to make a simple butterfly matching game. You could cut out different color butterflies from construction paper, use stamps to make patterns, etc. and play a memory game with those just as easily.

--Gross Motor: Move like caterpillars, and then move like butterflies

--Craft: Egg carton caterpillars: paint an egg carton, punch 2 holes in the first cup, thread a pipe cleaner through to make antennae, add googly eyes and you have a cute caterpillar.

--Craft: Coffee filter butterflies: Use an old fashioned clothes pin (the non-pinch ones) and wrap pipe cleaner around the top for antennae. Paint a coffee filter (you could also use colored tissue paper if you don't want to paint) and after it dries fold it and slide it into the opening at the bottom of the clothespin and spread out the wings.

--Math: arranging caterpillars from smallest to largest. I'm using these: http://lapbooksbycarisa.homestead.com/TheVeryHungryCaterpillar.html (There are MANY awesome things for this book on this site, you might find something else you think your kid would like there...check her out!)

--Math: addition Ex: on Monday the caterpillar ate one apple, and on Tuesday he ate two pears...how much food did he eat on those days? And so on, you get the picture.) I printed this: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9DbWcozSA54/S8vlZpkCSZI/AAAAAAAABCY/ePukoAGOPPk/s1600/Caterpillar+Food.png to use as counters for the math problems.

--Math: Count how much food the butterfly ate ALL week.

--Cooking: Make cupcakes, and form them into a caterpillar. Enjoy!

--Lunch: Butterfly sandwiches--cut the sandwich into triangle pieces, and arrange them points in to look like butterfly wings, use a pretzel rod, carrot stick or pickle (or anything you think of!) as the butterfly's body

--Science: Life Cycle of a butterfly (We've been watching this first hand, as we ordered caterpillars from insectlore.com) Print out sequencing cards and put them in order. I used these: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/sequencingpl/

--Science: Did the caterpillar eat healthy foods? Which ones weren't healthy? The caterpillar got a stomach ache, what might give you a stomach ache?

--Science: Sort the food the caterpillar ate into food groups-meat/veggies/fruit/grains. Brief discussion of how much of these foods boys/girls should eat.

--Science: Purpose of butterflies (2ND largest pollinators next to honey bees,) found everywhere on the planet except Antarctica

--Science: Sense of taste. Butterflies taste with their antennae.

--Language: Before/After--"What did he eat BEFORE the oranges?" "What did he eat AFTER the plums?" (I will use story sequencing cards from http://www.dltk-teach.com/books/hungrycaterpillar/sequencing.htm for this)

--Language: Days of the Week

--Muffin Tin Monday: I'll be using foods from the book to create Monday's Lunch! :) We'll be out all morning on Monday, so I'll make it ahead of time so it's ready and waiting when we arrive back home at lunch.