The Honey Bees had another good week of coming together as a group. When I think about curriculum for this class, I start looking forward to all the things we are going to do, but then I have to remember that it is week three. We are learning how we play together, how we make a line, starting to feel confident singing together, and trusting each other. We have been doing the calendar, singing the days of the week, and taking turns being the “calendar kid”. I think the most challenging skill we are working on is waiting. The realization that we aren’t the only one is hard, but it also has big payoffs as we begin to identify as part of a group. These Honey Bees are practicing saying how they feel, asking for the toy they might want to play with next, and asking for what they need.
We are still talking about caterpillars and butterflies, and perhaps this week we’ll branch out into other insects. I love bugs! Today we talked about some interesting facts about caterpillars. They have 12 eyes, and though they have 6 real legs, they also have something called prolegs that help them maintain suction while they are walking. Caterpillars produce silk with their mouths to attach themselves to transform into a chrysalis. Today we started working on some painted honey bees and honeycomb to attach to our hive, and tomorrow we will take about how butterflies are symmetrical and make a folded butterfly painting. We’ll also paint some paper bag chrysalis’ to hang on a butterfly/milkweed/chrysalis mobile for our room. If you need a little earworm, here’s a favorite song from last week.
Today we looked at some milkweed close up and opened a milkweed seed pod to check out the seeds inside. That milk is sticky. Milkweed is very bitter, and that is why many creatures won’t try to eat a monarch caterpillar or butterfly.
Ask your child how many eyes a caterpillar has?
