Wednesday Activity

The teacher in me went a little overboard today with our activity. It started simply enough, with an idea to do something with insects. I narrowed in down to butterflies and found a cute craft. I wanted to teach a very simple lesson about The Life Cycle of a Butterfly. But the ideas kept coming and soon I had a whole little lesson plan for the morning. We started with readingThe Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle focusing on the different stages the caterpillar goes through. We then did a little worksheet (which I actually found on a website where teachers share lesson plans...it's been too long since I visited one of those!) where the kids colored simple pictures of the four stages and then cut them out and glued them onto a butterfly. This was followed by looking at real pictures on the internet, acting out the transformation ourselves and then ending with cute butterfly craft where we traced their hands to make the wings.

The teacher in me forgot to plan for the needs of each student and the fact that one of her "students" is exactly two years old. A good teacher will always strive to meet the differing needs of his/her students and make necessary adaptions so that every child can meet their potential. My adaptation for today was to let Kiwi ride her bike and run all over the house while Little Man and I finished the project. And even he was getting a little antsy by the end.

The hit of the morning was definitely acting out the life cycle.

In their eggs on the leaf

Hungry little caterpillars

Snug in their cocoons

A beautiful butterfly