I is for Insect

Due to the group of insects being one of the most diverse groups of animals in the world, it was important to engage the children about numerous insects this week. We started by reading 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' illustrated and written by Eric Carle. This story is about the sequence of changes in a butterfly lifecycle from birth in an egg to the emergence of a butterfly from a chrysalis. The very hungry caterpillar gets bigger and BIGGER as he eats his way through an assortment of yummy foods like sausages, cake and gerkins...this was a story that most of the children were familiar with and seemed to really enjoy hearing what happened to the greedy caterpillar.

To follow the theme of insects...we also met a Titan Stick Insect from Queensland which the children were amazed by! They had the opportunity to gently touch the stick insect on its back and have individual photos taken with it. After this, we moved outside to make our craft which for this week was a sun catcher butterfly.

To make the sun catcher, you can use a butterfly template (printed on black card) making sure that parts of the wings are cut out so that the sun can come through. Using pre-cut strips of several colours of cellophane, glue them side by side on the back of the template. Hang your sun catcher on a window that gets sun throughout the day.

We finished the program this week with a song...we sang the Ants Go Marching while marching around our room (we only sang to three, not to ten)

Ants Go Marching
The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching one by one,
The little one stops to suck his thumb
And they all go marching down to the ground
To get out of the rain,
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching two by two,
The little one stops to tie his shoe
And they all go marching down to the ground
To get out of the rain,
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The ants go marching three by three, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching three by three, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching three by three,
The little one stops to climb a tree
And they all go marching down to the ground
To get out of the rain,
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!