Summer-week 7

Bug Week!!  My boys (especially Ethan) loved this--since they love all things bug related!  Ethan even calls himself a "bug expert"!  About a month ago, Ethan actually assigned each family member 3 different bugs they needed to find (either dead or alive).  He gave Grant easy ones like roly-poly and lady bug, but Jon lucked out and was supposed to find a black widow!  Thankfully we haven't seen one of those around! 

Here's a couple of neat facts we learned this week:
-only female mosquitoes bite humans, the males eat plants
-roly-poly bugs are actually crustaceans (like lobsters, etc) and keep a little water under their shell and have gills

The activities we did this week were:

-Made egg carton caterpillars.  Use the bottom part of an empty egg carton and cut into strips of 3 of more, turn it upside down--so the caterpillar has a bumpy back--and paint or color with markers or crayons.  Add googly eyes (or draw them on) and pipe-cleaner antennae. 

-Went on 2 nature walks/hikes.  We saw quite a few bugs--but too hard to get pictures of them!  One hike we went to Barr Lake State Park (where they also do story-time for toddler/preschool age on the 1st Tues. of each month).  Our other hike was at Devil's Head up to the Lookout Tower.  This was a great hike!  Ethan (at 5) was able to walk it all himself, however we did have to carry Grant (almost 3) in the backpack carrier at least half the time.  We liked getting to the top and being able to climb up to the fire lookout tower.  You have a 360 degree view of the Pike National Forest--beautiful!  

                                         We hiked with Grandpa and Grandma!

At the lookout tower!

-Of course a bug week wouldn't be complete without a trip to the Butterfly Pavillion!  We enjoyed watching some new butterflies be released and Grant even held Rosie (the tarantula).

That's a butterfly on Ethan's head!

-Danced to the Flight of the Bumblebees (look on Youtube) and found this other bug song/video my boys thought was cool.

-Made bug collages with pictures from National Geographic magazines

-Sang/acted out other bug songs--Itsy, Bitsy Spider and The Ants Go Marching

Other fun things we could have done:
-Butterfly footprints--paint footprints (spread out like wings) on a paper and then decorate to look like a butterfly
-Flying bugs--cut wings from tissue paper, put a twisty tie around for the body, then blow on them and they will "fly"
-Draw insect habitats (bee hive, ant hill, spider web, etc) and either draw the bugs in their habitat or use bug stickers (I found some at the dollar store)

We found lots of bug books!
-Beetle Bop by Denise Fleming
-The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle
-The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle
-I Love Bugs by Emma Dodd
-The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
-Flying Mosquitoes by Janet Piehl
-Monarch Butterfly by Edana Eckart
-Busy Ants by Kristin Nelson
-Diary of a Fly by Doreen Cronin
-Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
-Ladybug Girl by David Soman
-The Magic School Bus Gets Ants in its Pants by
There were a few other non-fiction bug books that were too long to actually read to my boys, but we looked at the pictures.