A Picnic of Words

I made a unit to go along with our "Amazing Creatures" unit and I just can't seem to stop!  At first it was just caterpillars and butterflies, but then I wanted to add some other "creatures"....and it just keeps growing!  In fact, it has grown so big, I am going to have to split it into two - math and literacy - because I have been unsuccessful making it into a pdf.  I don't know if it's because of the size of the document or that my computer's RAM isn't big enough.  (I have an OLD computer!) 

This activity is for a Literacy Station.  Children will build words by building an ant.  The head is the (C) and the thorax/abdomen are the (VC).  Included are the ants, letters, and a recording sheet.  I have NOT used this yet with my students.  (I just made it while unwinding from a long, long week!)  Please leave me a coment if you download it and would love your feedback if you use it with your students! 

In the meantime......here's a freebie for you!  Happy T.G.I.F.!

Today was our kindergarten music program, "In Our Backyard".  Before we left the classroom, the students reported to me that the chrysalids were getting "transparent".  I looked at them and sure enough they had gone from grass green to almost black!  I told them that if we were lucky we might be able to watch them come out of the chrysalids.  I hoped aloud that they wouldn't wait until the weekend to emerge.  Well, wouldn't you know it, we went to perform for the parents and when we returned about 50 minutes later, both caterpillars had emerged!  They were BEAUTIFUL!

True story:  In the afternoon I told the students we were going to release the butterflies because we didn't  have food for them and they needed to be free.  I asked them if they wanted to name them before we released them.  They came up with almost as many names as there were children, but one name that kept popping up was "Hannah".  We couldn't decide on a boy's name.  Finally, going out the door we decided we'd name them after Junie B. Jones and Sheldon.  When the first butterfly came out of the habitat, it flew right out and "lit" on one of our little girls' head - Hannah's!  It stayed there for the longest time.  We decided it really did want the name of "Hannah"!

(More photos coming soon!)

After the butterfly release, we joined another kindergarten class that was releasing butterflies.  EVERYONE got to hold not one...or two...or three ladybugs.  There were more than enough ladybugs to go around!

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