Going Buggy for Bugs!

Since we came back from break, we have been learning all about insects.  My students have really gotten excited about insects.

To start off our week, we created a schema chart:

{This picture was taken after we learned about the insects and started adding new learning.}

We read some stories about bugs:

We learned about entomologists and sang the entomologist song from Deanna Jump's Insect Unit.  My students really liked this song.

We also learned and sang the Insect Body Parts song from Dr. Jean's CD Kiss Your Brain.  We also have been working on buggy literacy centers from my All About Insect Unit.  Here is one of the centers the kiddos were working on.  We also did the scrambled sentences center as well as the insect read & write the room from my Read & Write the Room All Year Long pack.

Since we focused on what makes an insect and entomologists the first day of our study, we decided today to dive deeper into each insect.  We started learning about caterpillars and butterflies.  We read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle.  The students then had to decide what they would want to eat if they were very hungry.  We had quite the range of ideas from hot dogs to fruit to lollipops.  

We are also read "Ten Little Caterpillars" by Bill Martin Jr.  I really like that book because it shows ten different caterpillars and then at the end it shows what kind of moth or butterfly each caterpillar turns into.  My students were absolutely fascinated by this.  They wrote about what an insect is today for the first page in our "All About Insects" book.  We also did the "Bug's Eye View" activity from Deanna Jump's unit.  She posted about the activity on her blog yesterday.  You can see that post {here}.

The students are using the math centers from my insect unit, but since Wednesdays are our early dismissal days we didn't have a chance to do them today and I forgot to take pictures yesterday.  So, I promise to post about those tomorrow.  They are really enjoying the new math centers.  Tomorrow we will also be finishing up our butterfly learning with a pasta butterfly life cycle project as well as some butterfly writing.  I am also hoping to finish my new insect emergent reader tomorrow so I can share that with you!  :)

You can find all of these activities & more in either my insect unit or Deanna Jump's.  Click on the images to check them out!

Before I head off to bed for the night, I have to tell you about a FANTASTIC giveaway that I am blessed to be in.  My dear sweet bloggy BFF Khrys from Keepin' It Kool In Kinderland is having a 375+ follower giveaway.  She has two prize packs that you could win.  She is choosing two winners.  Click on the image to head on over and enter the giveaway.  While you are there, you should look around because I know you will LOVE her blog as much as I do!

Good night all!  After being on break, my body is having a hard time getting back into the swing of things.  I am exhausted!!!  Hoping tomorrow I won't be quite as tired.  :)