Butterfly Poems

Before becoming a mother, I was an elementary music teacher.  I enjoyed my job a lot, but I like being a mom even better!  It may sound silly, but I feel teaching music to a classroom full of kindergarteners was easier than trying to "teach" music to my daughter!  I'm not sure why, exactly.  After reading this post about a weekly and daily rhythm from Childhood Magic, I decided that we need to focus on music one day a week.  So Wednesdays have become "Music and Movement Day!"  E loves it.  Today I brought out my guitar to play a few songs, and let her pluck around as well.  Since we are beginning to study butterflies, I grabbed some of our playsilks and taught her these fun caterpillar/butterfly poems I used with my preschoolers way back when.

Caterpillar, Butterfly

One will crawl, one will fly

Which moves low? Which moves high?

Caterpillar, Butterfly

This poem is fun to wiggle on the ground when speaking about the caterpillars, and to walk on tip-toes when speaking about the butterflies.  And of course, playsilk wings are a MUST.

Way up in the skies, a butterfly flies,

When way down below, a caterpillar goes slow.

He munches and munches on jungle leaf lunches.

"I'm so full and fat!" he says with a pat.

"I'll spin a cocoon by the light of the moon,

Curl up in my bed, and sleep," he said.

Not a sound did we hear, 'till the special moment was near.

The weeks soon passed by, and out flew a butterfly!

We act out the poem one line at a time.  Playsilks can become butterfly wings, jungle leaves, and the caterpillar's cocoon.  If you have some small percussion instruments laying around, it's really fun to add "sound effects" to the poem as well!

We Play: Blocks!

E loves to play with two things: blocks and her little animal figurines.  She loves stacking and lining up all the blocks, and then putting her little animals in just the right places.  She lines everything up and puts all the "baby" animals with their "mamas."  I recently came across a set of cardboard bricks - the same kind I had when I was growing up - at a garage sale.  E has been building and building with them.  I love how big they are, we can build animal apartments, walls, and towers.  I remember building the walls to houses with them when I was little.  The possibilities are endless!

These pictures remind me so much of my brother, sister, and myself when we were kids!

New Materials

I've been working on a few new materials while we are on a short break from school.  Next week we'll start up again for a month or so, and then we'll really get into things in August.  E's friend, our neighbor across the street, will be joining us a couple of days a week, starting next Thursday!  E is excited to have a friend for school time, and I'm excited to work with two children, instead of just one.

E loves butterflies.  And since she got over her fear of ants, she pretty much likes all kinds of bugs.  She is fascinated by them, as are most children.  I put together this felt board to teach the different parts of a butterfly.  The only thing missing are the legs, I thought she'd just loose 6 tiny felt legs. 

Even though E can't read, I have labels for each part.  She enjoys placing the labels on the picture.  She usually says the right body part, but doesn't have the correct label.

The other new material I have made recently is the sound cylinders.  I made these out of baby food jars.  I gave them a good spray painting, and filled them with different items from my pantry.  I have 6 different pairs.  Inside are things like cornmeal, dried beans, oats, and rice.  I measured them so the amount in each is the same.  E loves this work, and gets so excited when she finds a matching pair.

Next up on my list of things to make are the metal insets.  I'm planning on tracing our geometric cabinet shapes and making the insets out of cardboard.  E has been interested in tracing things recently, so I think it's time to start!

Craft Corner: Plant Markers

My dad loves to work in the yard.  His mom, my grandma, grew up on a farm, and she still has a giant garden.  My dad has been yearning for a garden ever since I can remember.  When I was little we had a small garden, with tomato and cucumber plants.  Now, he's trying out square foot gardening, in some fancy garden boxes he built this spring.

What does every dad who gardens need for Father's Day?  Some fancy plant markers so everyone knows what plant is what out there in the garden!

I made my plant markers out of oven bake clay (I used Sculpey), aluminum foil, and an old coathanger.  If you have older kids, this would be a really fun project to do together!  You can find the clay and all the tools for it at the craft store.  Honestly, the only tool I use is a long blade (like a razor blade), and you could probably use a knife for that.  Oven bake clay is used a lot to make beads and such, so bead templates and things to poke the holes through the clay were included in my tool set.

First, take aluminum foil and crunch it up into the shape you want your plant markers to be.

Then take out your clay.  Each brick is scored into four sections.  I used 3 sections for each plant marker.  I cut up one section each of two different colors into slices:

And stacked the slices together, alternating colors.

Next I squashed them all together into a big roll.  How you do this will make a difference in how your final product looks, so think about it before you squash.  I didn't think before I did this one, but you can see some prettier patterns in the last couple of pictures.

Roll the clay out to the desired size, and cover one side of the aluminum foil.

See, only one side is covered.

Take the last section of clay (either color, it doesn't matter) and roll it out for the back side of the plant marker.

Take your coathanger, and some wire cutters and cut off one corner.  Sandwich this between the foil on the back side of the plant marker and the plain clay.  Cover the back side with the clay.

Now - to make it pretty!  Roll out a long, thin snake of black clay and use this to edge the whole plant marker.

Then, out of the same black clay, roll out another long, thin snake to make the letters.

Bake according to your package directions.  Mine was 15 minutes at 275 degrees.

Let cool, and show off in your garden.  Or, give to your dad or husband for Father's Day!!

Please Stand By

I've been having internet issues the last several days.  I think they are finally resolved, so be ready for some new posts coming soon!

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