Perhaps it was the early heat, or maybe they just really liked us, but our caterpillars become butterflies very quickly!  On Memorial Day, 9 of our 10 caterpillars had made themselves cocoons and were ready to be moved.  We carefully took them out of their cups and pinned them onto the mesh of our Butterfly Pavillion.  We were advised that this could take 7 to 10 days, but in less than a week, all of our cocoons had opened into butterflies!  We gave them orange slices to eat for a day or two and when they all seemed ready, we took them to our garden plot to set them free.  Most of them flew away quickly, but others seemed to want to stay.  It may have been too soon to release them, but the Tugboats preferred to think that they butterflies just loved us!  One of them in particular was drawn to the children and eagerly climbed onto their gentle hands.  What a treat to hold a butterfly!

We’ve had a very busy couple of weeks!  We continued our exploration of Eric Carle last week by reading 2 new books, and rereading a third.  We began the week with The Very Lonely Firefly, about a small firefly who searches for a community of his own, but is frustrated by finding light bulbs, candles, and even fireworks!  From Head To Toe illustrates the different ways humans and animals use their bodies, some of which are similar and some of which are not.  When it was time to set our butterflies free at the end of the week, we revisited The Very Hungry Caterpillar so we could get ready for our important mission!  This week, we explored a few more Caterpillar projects before we moved on to reading Mr. Seahorse, which follows a father seahorse as he travels through the ocean.  As he swims, he finds other father sea animals who, like him, take care of their babies when they are eggs.

Math Projects:  We explored a variety of mathematical concepts through our books these past 2 weeks!  Last week, we talked about symmetry as we examined butterfly wings and noticed how each wing in a pair is exactly like the other.  Working together and individually, we painted one half of a butterfly, then folded it in half to create a symmetrical beauty!  We also practiced making graphs as we counted all of the food The Very Hungry Caterpillar eats.  Using a prepared chart and colored stickers, each child made his or her own graph that helped us to see how much he at of each type of food.  Later in the week, we strengthened our number recognition, one-to-one correspondence, and addition with caterpillar math sentences.  Working together, we counted how much food the caterpillar would have consumed if he had eaten different numbers of each variety of food.

Art and Sensory Projects:  The symmetrical painting spanned both math and art domains!  In addition, we explored two new ways of painting.  First, we painted egg cartons to look like our very own caterpillars!  Secondly, we used watercolor paints on a new, fibrous paper.  Rather than using brushes, however, we applied our paint with toothpicks, rubber bands, and pipe cleaners.  The resulting art looks strikingly similar to Carle’s unique paintings in Mr. Seahorse!  My favorite sensory project of the week came from one of our parent helpers.  Heather brought in her blender, along with all the foods that the caterpillar eats, and we made smoothies.  I love a project that is delicious as well as educational!

Gross Motor, Games, and Language:  Last week, we developed our own Eric Carle spin on the classic game Cootie!  At two tables, we used our own body parts, cut to look like those on the Firefly, and unique dice to create our own fireflies!  Each child took a turn rolling the die and collecting the body parts indicated on their roll.  Once we had finished, everyone had a body, legs, wings, and eyes.  Last week, we took another classic game and modified it to fit our classroom.  We played Head to Toe charades!  Everyone took a turn selecting a different animal from the book, then acted it out for their peers to guess.  It was amazing to see the tiny details they selected to be distinctive for their animals!  One small group practiced identifying similar phonemes together.  They thought of many words that start with a c, like caterpillar, and wrote them on small green circles.  When we put the circles together, it formed a word wall in the shape of a caterpillar!

We’ve enjoyed seeing a lot of growth in our plot at the Bremen St. Community Garden.  We even made snack today using our first harvest:  snap peas!  The children tried the sweet green treats with a creamy dip.  Yum!

The Tugboats send a great big THANK YOU to Yale Appliance for our brand new dishwasher!

Thanks to Yale’s generosity, we can now use reusable plates, bowls, forks and spoons. They have enabled us to reduce the amount of trash we generate and keep our space extra clean!

We’ve been observing our caterpillars for a week now and are just amazed at how they’ve grown!  Last Friday, a shipment of caterpillars arrived from Insect Lore.  Per their directions, we kept them in a temperate place without too much sunlight and watched and waited…

As of Thursday evening, 2 of our 10 caterpillars had attached to the lid and were ready to begin transforming into chrysalis.  By Friday morning, 7 had attached to the lid and 3 were obviously transforming.  By Friday afternoon, 9 caterpillars were attached!  I can’t wait to see how they look on Monday morning…

It’s been another colorful week of Eric Carle exploration.  This week, we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, I See A Song, and Papa Please Get The Moon For Me.  You can see some of our adventures in the photos below!