The Beautiful Gift of the Monarch Butterfly

 

 While playing outside two weeks ago, we found several Monarch Butterfly wings under the butterfly bush in the garden.  It was a special gift for us to be able to hold and look at

the wings up close.  To get a better look we examined the wings with magnifying glasses which

the children loved!

 

 

 

They were fascinated by these wings.

We also talked about Monarch Butterflies and how the Monarch not only has

4 stages: egg, caterpillar, cocoon, butterfly

It also has 4 generations in one year.  The 1st being the butterfly that migrates North from Mexico usually in the Spring, the second, being the Spring butterfly that lays its egg, and usually lives 2-6 weeks, and the Summer butterfly that does the same, but the fall monarch hatched from the summer egg, goes on to migrate South and lives 6-8 months. 

If the kids didn't find this fact fascinating, I did!

 

For a week we kept going back to the wings and looking at them.

One day the older group observed and pieced together some of

the wings to draw.

 

We also made our own Monarch Butterflies using washable

marker on coffee filters that the children dropped water on

with eye droppers



 

The water made the colors bleed in a very beautiful way.

Some later drew lines and dots on the wings after looking at the wings again.

 

 

 

 One of our beloved finger plays at school is Rolly-polly caterpillar, which we

did often as well as "butterflies are flying won't you try and catch one," where we

pretend to have nets and catch our own butterfly.

One day all the kids caught 100!  Amazing!

Bella Luna

Today we are back from a two week break, and back on a full moon.

I have noticed that full moons often effect people of all ages, but preschoolers in particular.

Something wild takes over.  Instead of worrying about it, today I decided to embrace the energy of the full moon and talk about it with the kids.

So, we created our own full moons.  We also looked at the phases of the moon, and talked about the different images we see in the moon.  We saw rabbits and faces.  We also talked about why the moon glows at night, and my favorite reason was Jasper's: "the moon glows because it has electricity."

This was a simple and fun project, because the kids loved watching the marker bleed on the paper with just a few drops from the eye dropper.

Start by using water color paper or a thick absorbent paper, then have children color all over with a washable marker.

 Give the children a cup of water and an eye dropper and let them go to town.

After the paper drys, let them draw with glue on the circle.



Then let the glitter fun begin.  let them sprinkle it on top of the glue, make sure to keep a dish or a cookie sheet under them to catch the glitter.  We would also knock some of the excess glitter off now and then.  It is a fun project because they love experimenting with materials; The way the marker bleeds, the pouring of glue, the shaking of the glitter, it is just plain old fun!

Following our art time, we sang some songs about the moon, and instead of a sun salutation during yoga, we did a moon salutation.  We had a dance party to "Can you Catch the Moon" by Elizabeth Mitchell and Lisa Loeb

Later we read a couple great books with the moon in them, which I listed below along with our songs.

It was a beautiful lunar day for us at school.

Books we read:

Just the parts on Winter Moons.

Great book!

Songs we Sang:

"Can you catch the moon?"  Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell

hit the link below to see the video and hear the song...very sweet

http://youtu.be/epRWUbgw9V4

THE MOON IS CIRCLING ‘ROUND THE EARTHTune: “When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again” or “The Ants Go Marching”

The moon is circling ‘round the earth, hurrah!, hurrah!
We cannot see it, in the day, the day.
But when day turns into night,
We can see the moon so bright.
Oh, we’re oh so glad that the moon is in the sky.

Jean Warren

MAN IN THE MOON

Man in the moon,
Man in the moon,
Shinning in the night.
What a happy face you have,
Big, round and white.

                        Jean Warren

I SEE THE MOON

I see the moon
And the moon see me.
God bless the moon
And God bless me!

                        Traditional



Using coffee filters to create a great tie-dyed effect

Coffee Filter Leaf

Over the summer we made coffee filter butterflies, which I have posted a picture of below this project. It is a great project that Jamie, our summer assistant teacher, did with the kids.

We recently did a variation of this, in which we made leaves.

This is one of the few projects that I actually cut a shape out for the children to use.

Most times I like them to explore and not have to stay within a pre-existing design, but for this I thought they would enjoy how much they could make the coloring of their leaves look like real Fall leaves.

It is a very simple process, the children color on the coffee filter with washable markers. It works best if they cover most to the area.

They then take eye droppers with water in them, and watch the colors bleed into each other.

It makes for a fun, and experimental project focused on how colors mix when the water is added.

Below is an example of the butterflies the children made over the summer with Jamie. Instead of a cut form, this was a whole coffee filter they colored and then added the water with a spray bottle.

To see step by step instructions on this, visit Jamie's blog at:

http://hensandchickscrafts.blogspot.com/