This week's book of the week was the well known story of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". The children enjoyed listening about how the caterpillar transformed into a beautiful butterfly and this inspired lots of activities surrounding this theme. We made a life cycle plate using clay and natural resources to make eggs, caterpillars, cocoons and butterflies. This was a lovely craft activity that initiated lots of interesting conversations surrounding the life cycle of a caterpillar and how the transformation is called metamorphosis (quite a tricky word but the children enjoyed saying it and sharing their knowledge with one another).
Some children also made butterflies with some leaves that we found that we cut into the shape of a butterfly. There were also lots of caterpillars made using sticks with leaves attached. We incorporated some maths into this activity and used a hole punch to make holes in the leaves, counting the holes as we went, reminding ourselves that caterpillars need to eat lots and lots of leaves before they make their chrysalis.
We talked about how butterfly wings are symmetrical which prompted a conversation about symmetry. The children had lots of fun drawing one half of a shape and then used a mirror to reflect the other half.
We also tried to encourage some butterflies to come and visit us by making some butterfly feeders using wire with fruit attached. This gave the children an opportunity to use the wire cutters and knife to cut up the fruit as well as using their muscles to bend and manipulate the wire into the correct shape.
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