Caterpillars & Butterflies

The preschool class has been studying the butterfly life cycle.  This photo is one of the ten butterflies that we watched grow from a caterpillar and emerge as a butterfly.

Larvae were ordered from Carolina Biological Supply.

The children were fascinated with the caterpillars and checked them daily for growth.  They also read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

Insect specimens inside acrylic blocks showing the butterfly life cycle were set out at the science table for children to explore.

Gao, Laoshi has been teaching the children Chinese vocabulary related to butterflies.

After the butterflies emerged they were released from the habitat.

While I was on vacation I visited the Smithsonian’s Butterfly exhibit.  These are a few of the pictures I took to share with the children.

Little Pandas Preschool

Sorting Seeds

This week the preschoolers have been studying seeds in more depth.

Transparencies with pictures of corn, pea, watermelon and pumpkin seeds were set out on the light table.   Boxes containing the same seeds were available for the children to match with the pictures.  Pictures of each plant were taped to the top of the boxes.

The microscope was used to further examine and compare the seeds.

Preschoolers are heavily dependent on their senses for learning, so the seed activity was extended through fingerprinting.  Sesame seeds were added to the paint.

Little Pandas Preschool

A Tiny Seed

The preschool class is beginning their spring science unit covering plants and bugs. On Monday the children watched The Tiny Seed, a Youtube movie based on Eric Carle’s book.

They were also very excited to watch some bean sprouts grow. These can also be seen on Youtube at Growing Beans HD Timelapse – YouTube

The science table was set up for the children to explore some very tiny seeds after watching the videos.

The children explored the seeds through touch and taste.

The children looked at the seeds under the microscope and noticed they could see more details when the seeds appeared to be larger.

A magnifying glass was also used to look at the seeds.

After exploring the seeds the children remembered that the seed in the book grew to be very large. They wanted to know what the poppy seeds would grow to be, so some research was done on the computer. It was also decided that we should plant some poppy seeds.

After the group activity was completed children chose to work in centers. The iPad center included the “Seed Cycle” activity to reinforce the concepts learned earlier.

Little Pandas Preschool