Bugs for Preschoolers - Part 1

Well it certainly has been a few days (a week maybe?) since my last "mini-unit" post. Don't think for a minute that Sorting Sprinkles is shutting down...Far from it. In fact, I've got several more mini-units that will be coming to you throughout the summer but this week was for us sort of a mini-vacation. School was out (except for today) so we could enjoy the beautiful city of Dresden, Germany. As a result, I completely unplugged from the blog but am now back telling you in details what Adrian and I were up to last week.

Kinder Surprise Bees and their Elastic Stripes

Adrian and Zahavah's favorite treats now that they live in Germany are Kinder Surprise eggs. I'm not sure what they fancy the most; the chocolate or the toy inside. Either way, every time one of these is consumed, we are left with an empty yellow shell. Over time, we've accumulated quite a few and I've kept about eight just in case I'd find something to do with them. While brainstorming about bugs, I focused on bees for a while and thought about the shells and how they could become bee so I drew faces on the shells. For stripes, I thought we could use elastics because they are such a great finger strengthener. To add more fun, I added a die to determine the quantity of stripes each bee would sport. Adrian was so excited to see the Kinder Surprise shells and turn them into something else. He played with the bees for a while after.

Transferring Bee Nectar

Here's another excellent activity for little fingers in need of more fine motor work;  the famous eye dropper task. I colored some water yellow and Adrian had to transfer it all using the medicine dropper. If a spill happened, he used the sponge provided but not pictured.

Pouring Bee Pollen

Ever seen real pollen collected by bees? Apparently it looks a bit like yellow split peas! It is even sold for its health property and supposedly great when consumed by people who have seasonal allergies. Who knew? In any case, for the purpose of this activity, I did not purchase any real bee pollen but went ahead and used the yellow split peas we had on hand, poured one cup in the measuring cup, provided am empty honey bear bottle and funnel (with a hole big enough to let peas go through at a decent rate). Although simple looking enough, it wasn't all that simple when the pouring began. Adrian soon realized he had to hold the funnel and go rather slow so as to not clog the funnel. He quickly learned how to unclog it when it happened though.

Move like an insect!

Get your kids moving with these cards from Oopsey Daisy! We had a rough week weather-wise here so I thought I'd print these cards to get Adrian moving and get him laughing at the same time! Get bonus points if you dare move with your kid! ;)

Cutting Strips and Classification

Another week, another cutting strip. We're getting good at these and more confident. I feel like we'll be able to move up another notch. Adrian can now very well cut strips that require him to open the scissors twice to get through a strip so it's time to make it more challenging. This week, his cutting strip was provided by the Gift of Curiosity's Free Insects Package. When I first saw this package, I fell in love. It was a huge pack of printables with beautiful graphics but of course, we don't use a lot of printables in "mama's school" so I sifted through the pages to see what we'd use. This page is the one I finally went with. Adrian cut the insects strips one day and the "not insects" on another day. Later during the week, I brought out all the cut pictures and had him sort and glue them in their proper places.

Math - Butterfly Symmetry

I knew I wanted to do a butterfly symmetry activity with Adrian but didn't know how to introduce it to make it fun. I happened to stumble upon All Our Days' Busy Bag. With no time to order, I decided to make my own. Of course, mine don't look nearly as perfect as their kit but they did the job. If you really want yours to look like theirs, they can though...apparently, someone (aka me) was very tired  when first planning this activity and did not notice the free PDF to that symmetry busy bag! Don't I feel dumb, now? *sigh*  Anyhow...understanding the symmetry aspect wasn't easy. We looked at butterflies before but having no mirroring glass to shadow the proper symmetry, it was sometimes too advanced to Adrian. Still a good intro to symmetry though.

Giant Bugs Puzzle

Unless you are new to my blog, you already know that I love Melissa & Doug products, especially their puzzles. Adrian being old enough for floor puzzles, we got him (or someone did get him) this bugs puzzle for his last birthday. The pieces are huge but it's not that easy to put together...

Rescuing ladybugs from a water reservoir

I happened to have bought a pack of plastic ladybugs from Birthday Direct last winter for Zahavah's birthday party. I re-used them here in this flower planter filled with water and provided Adrian with a small mesh strainer usually used for decorating cakes with sugar icing. Let's be honest: the rescue was easy but nothing will ever beat the fun of the activity. I originally had set it up for outside but transferred it inside as the rain started before Adrian and I headed out.

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Today, I'm happily linking up to

Montessori Monday, The Kids Co-Op, Show-and-Share Saturday, Link & Learn, TGIF, Share it Saturday, Mom's Library, The Sunday Showcase, Sun Scholars's For the Kids Friday, Stress-Free Sunday, Thursday Toddler & Preschool, Tuesday Tots, Preschool Corner &5K, Hammock Tracks' Look What We Did, Serenity Saturday, Virtual Montessori Sharing Fair,  Artsy Play Wednesday, Mommy Archive, and We Made That.

If you would like me to link up with you, please don't hesitate to ask, it might take me a week or two, but I generally do!