Bugs/Insects - Day 3 - Butterflies, Caterpillars

We ended up finishing up our Bug Unit a few days late.  Our last topic was Caterpillars and Butterflies.  We started by watching The Magic School Bus The Butterfly and the Bog and doing an activity from the Magic School Bus Activity Guide.  We talked about how the coloring on butterflies protects them from predators and then colored our own butterfly with protective coloring.  

We painted some butterflies, made a pom pom caterpillar which we then added wings to and made it into a butterfly which we decorated with foam stickers.

The kids were still very excitable and distracted.  Georgie is going on vacation with Granny Franny next week and he's been counting down the days.  I didn't really push to do formal schoolwork since I have a ton of cleaning to do before they get here on Thursday.  I also just signed up for a body fat reduction Challenge at the YMCA so I'm trying to get back into the habit of going to work out everyday. 

I'm going to re-work our schedule for when Georgie is back.  Currently, math and reading are in the afternoon and we often don't get to them since the kids get tired or hyper.  I've rearranged things so that Math and Reading are done everyday in the morning (or at least early afternoon on our class days) and the Theme activities come after.  They are usually more excited about the Theme activities since there tends to be a lot more craft and creative stuff there.  The kids are still really young for us to worry too much about formal activities and schooling but I'm using this time to experiment with what works best so that when it is time to get serious, we know what to do.