Butterfly in the Sky

This week we've been trying to get back to our routine, with soccer and storytimes.  We started the summer reading program and stopped by the UC Davis Language Learning Lab so Tobias could help with a study.  We also started the summer zoo classes at the Sacramento Zoo.  This week was on the eye.  We talked about how hawks can "zoom" in their vision, cats and dogs see limited colors, slugs have blurry vision, and bees see a target in the center of flowers.  Birds can see in the ultraviolet range while other animals see in infrared.  They made their own binoculars, played with kaleidoscopes, and created an eye spy shaker.  Genevieve also created a slug.  We did some painting as well.

When we weren't in classes, we've been studying butterflies and caterpillars.  We read Butterflies in the Garden, which talked about the types of flowers to grow in order to attract butterflies.  A Butterfly is Patient includes many types of butterflies and their caterpillar.  For metamorphosis, we enjoyed From Caterpillar to Butterfly and How a Caterpillar Grows into a Butterfly.  The Magic School Bus taught us about different methods butterflies and caterpillars use to protect themselves while Tanya Kant gave us extra information on the monarchs migration.

We talked about how butterflies start with B so painted B butterflies and used symmetry to create other butterflies.  We used the edge of a paper plate to create a curved caterpillar, which was great for talking about stripe patterns, and played with our gear caterpillar.  We also got a butterfly kit to start raising our own butterflies.