As the waiting for the butterflies to emerge continued this week, we learned about the life cycle of another fascinating insect: the ant! Eggs, larva, pupa and ant were some of the names they learned this week and children repeated over and over. We also introduced the anatomy of an insect using different giant insect models. Children learned that all insects have a head, a thorax and abdomen. They all have six legs and antennas which help them to feel and smell the world around them. They also learned that most insects have wings. To reinforce this lesson we learned the song: “Head, Thorax, Abdomen,” sung to the tune of “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” song.
Here are the lyrics:
Head, thorax, abdomen, abdomen
Head, thorax, abdomen, abdomen
Eyes, antennas, wings, 6 legs
Head, thorax, abdomen, abdomen
Children also learned that spiders are not considered an insect, however they are a nice animal to observe. Happily we had some live insects visiting our classroom throughout the week and children really took the time to make sure they had all the body parts we learned this week.
By the end of the week children got the opportunity to observe two butterflies emerging from their chrysalises, stretching their wings and walking around the environment the children prepared for them.
For food tasting we explored a pretty cool vegetable that wasn’t in our rotation list, but since one of our families grew it in their garden, we had the opportunity to taste it: rhubarb. A big shout out to Ms. Eli for sharing such an interesting plant and cooking for us some rhubarb to taste. Even though it seems children were not absolutely in love with it, they tasted it and enjoyed some of its tart/sour/sweet flavor. This was my first time exploring this vegetable so I truly felt like one of the toddlers exploring this food. I gave it a thumbs up… not sure how many of the toddlers will agree with me. The good thing was that nobody spit it out so I think it passed the test.
Some of the favorite books this week were: The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle, Backyard Bugs by Jill McDonald and of course, Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi.
We hope you have a great weekend and please remember to take some time to jump in the puddles with your little ones.
Mrs. Hood and Mrs. Maria