Books About Bugs

Beautiful Bugs  by Daisy Connell
Busy Honeybees  by Justin McCory Martin
What Is An Insect?  by Jeff Bauer
Strange Bugs  by Justin McCory Marin
One Hundred Hungry Ants  by Elinor J. Pinczes
Fantastic Ants  by Elizabeth Bennett
The Bug Book  by Kathy Kranking
Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!  by Bob Barner
Insect Homes  by Lydia Carlin
I Love Bugs!  by Pilemon Sturges
Buzzy the Bumblebee  by Denise Brennan-Nelson
Bugs!  by David T. Greenburg
Slugs  by  David T. Greenburg
Mr. Bumble  by Kim Kennedy
The Ant Bully  by John Nickle
The Itsy Bitsy Spider  by Iza Trapani
The Grouchy Ladybug  by Eric Carle
The Very Lazy Ladybug  by Isobel Finn & Jack Tickle
Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
Diary of a Spider  by  Doreen Cronin
Diary of a Fly  by Doreen Cronin

Finger Puppet Friends

I love finger puppets!  We use them as our clean-up friends.  Five minutes before clean-up I put a finger puppet on my finger and it whispers in each child's ear "five minutes until clean-up".  The kids love it, and they each get a chance to do the clean-up puppet.  I try to coordinate the puppet to our theme!

The Earthworm Nursery

The top picture are Vermipods.  Vermipods are small clay balls and inside the clay ball is the earthworm cocoon.  The cocoons look like little apple seeds (see picture 2).  You put the vermipods in a net and dissolve the clay and then put them in the small plastic container titled Vermipod Earthworm Cocoons.  Some of the worms hatched out right away.  Once they hatch then you put them in the Earthworm Nursery, that has dirt in it and you sprinkle in some food.  Stay tuned to see how big the worms get!  I ordered these from http://www.insectlore.com.

The Ladybug's Are Here!

The first container is what the ladybug larvae come in.  You empty them all into the Ladybug Land and put the lid on.  The stuff in the container that looks like sand is the larvae food.  There is a small sponge that you keep wet for them to drink.  The larvae get bigger and molt their skin a few times.  Stay tuned for what happens next!  I ordered these from http://www.insectlore.com.

If you look close, you can see a yellow blob.  That is the larvae making his cocoon.  If you click on the image you can see it better.  All of the larvae are getting ready to turn.  They crawl on the side of the dome and lay upside down with their legs in the air, it's really weird!  Stay tuned......

We have lady bugs!  When they hatch they are a yellow color but they turn more orange.  You feed them raisins!

Flip Flop Ice Cream Shop

The Flip Flop Ice Cream Shop is one of the kids favorite dramatic play!  I used a puppet theater for our Ice Cream Shop.  The "workers" have special aprons that I ironed on the "logo" and the customers had purses, wallets, and fake money!  I bought fake ice cream sandwiches, ice cream cones, and ice cream bars in the dollar bins at Target and the dollar store.  The kids have so much fun!

Paper Plate Jellyfish

We added them to our ocean!

Under the Sea Snack

Under the Sea Jello Snack

After I mixed and poured the Jello, I let it sit for almost two hours before they added their fruit snacks to their "ocean".  That way, they didn't all sink to the bottom.

Paper Towel Tube Sharks

We added them to our ocean!

Sharks

What We Know About Sharks

* Sharks have 2-3 rows of teeth with 20-30 teeth in each row.
* Sharks eat fish, seals, plankton, and other sharks.
* Sharks can be 12-16 ft. long. 
* Sharks are part blind, so when they see people in the water they think that they are seals so they take a bite.  Humans taste bad to them, so they usually let them go.  That is why most people don't die from a shark bite, they just lose a lot of blood.

Very Cute book about a shark, who has a little self-control problem :)

We visited The Sweet Shop in Cadillac today!

We took a tour of The Sweet Shop today!  The kids got to make their own chocolate suckers, see how the chocolate is melted, dream about eating all the candy in the case, and we got a little taste test too!  For more information about The Sweet Shop go to http://www.sweetshop4u.com

The Reading Space

This is our "Reading Space"...get it.... reading space ....space!  It used to be the closet, but I took the doors off so the kids didn't pinch their fingers and put up a curtain.  Well, that didn't keep them out, so I thought how cool to make it a little reading area .  Even the light fixture looks like a flying saucer!

I got this fish from http://www.orientaltrading.com.  The kids used bingo blotters to decorate them.  They look really cool hanging in our ocean room!

Fishing Snack

Gone Fishing Snack

You will need:
Peanut Butter
Goldfish Crackers
Pretzel Sticks (Fishing pole)

Dip your Fishing pole (pretzel stick) in the peanut butter and "catch" a fish with it!  What a fun and yummy snack!

Five Little Fishes

(Fingerplay)

Five little fishes, swimming in a school.      (Hold up 5 fingers, swim with hands)

The first one said, "This water's cool".        (Hold up 1 finger, then shiver)

The second one said, "There's a shark over there!"        (Hold up two fingers,then point)

The third one said, "We'd better beware!"        (Hold up three fingers, look scared)

The fourth one said, "Where can we hide?"       (Hold up four fingers, hold out hands)

The fifth one said, "There's a cave! Go inside!"      (Hold up five fingers, then point.)

Then in went the fish, and the shark went away,

And the five little fishes swam out to play.

Our First Outing of the Summer!

We went to the county park.  We had a picnic and the kids built sandcastles by the water!

This paint additive is my favorite.  You just add it to the paint.  Less mess!  A little goes a long way.  The paper plate fish below have the shimmer, but I couldn't get a good picture to see it.  You can buy this at http://www.discountschoolsupply.com.

Paper Plate Fish

We used big and small paper plates but it's hard to tell in the picture.

We added them to our ocean!

Going to the Ocean

(sung to:  "I've Been Working on the Railroad")

I am going to the ocean,
To the ocean blue.
I am going to the ocean,
And you can come along, too.
We could watch the big and blue waves
Rising up and rolling down.
We could look for pretty seashells
On the sandy ground.

Come along with me.
Come along with me.
Come along with me to the deep blue sea.
Come along with me.
Come along with me.
Come along with me today.

Handprint Fish

Handprint Octopus

Ollie is an octopus that lives beneath the sea,

Everyday he jets from here to there quite happily.

If you spot him somewhere, you'd better stop and think,

For if he does not know you, he might squirt you with his ink!

Five Little Fishes

Five little fishes swimming in the sea,

Teasing Mr. Shark,

"You can't catch me!"

Along comes Mr. Shark, as quiet as can be and.....

SNAP!

Four little fishes swimming in the sea,

(Countdown until you get to zero!)

What We Know About Seahorses

* Seahorse can grow to be 12 inches long

* They eat small shrimp, fish, and plankton

* Seahorses swim vertical and very slow

* They use their tales to hold onto plants and coral

* Female seahorse lay eggs and give them to the male.  He puts them in his pouch and when they are ready they pop out! 

Sparkley Seahorses

They have become part of our ocean!

This is such a cool book!  All the sea creatures are made of food!

Gotta love Meijer!  They always have just the right snacks I'm looking for!

Ocean Theme

Our theme for June is The Ocean!

Face Painting and Pinata

We slow roasted hotdogs and had watermelon!  Yum!