Goin' Buggy!

Well, I promised after my St. Patrick's Day post...that I wouldn't go a long period of time in between posts and I've done it again. Sheeze o' pete! I've been mega busy with our school's Advanced Ed visit, Kindergarten screening for the new 2012-2013 babies, being sickly (blah), my friend having her twins, judging cheer tryouts, getting my own team's tryouts together, and a plethora of other things that you don't want to hear about! :)  Needless to say, I am beyond thrilled that spring break has finally arrived!

For all you baby lovers....be VERY jealous. Meet Jack and Kelsey....a little over a month early....but doing well. My friend and her hubby are thrilled and so is Auntie Erin. Squeal!

I.am.in.love.

Anyways.....we've been going buggy over insects and I just had to share all the wonderful things we did.  Most of this amazing-ness came from DeAnna Jump, the great. Her insect unit is the bomb dot com and my kinders had so.much.fun. Here is a glimpse of our 2 week study in pictures.

Students loved getting a "bug's eye view" and learning that insects have compound eyes. This is what we saw when we looked through our "bug viewers."

We wrote about what bugs us.

We read a TON of non fiction books and recorded our new learning in a fact book. Students learned what it meant to be an "entomologist" and study insects. 

We did a little poetry journaling.

We learned all about the life cycle of a butterfly and added facts about each stage. Students told me the facts and I recorded them on sentence strips!

Afterwards, we had a morning snack made our own life cycle using dry pasta noodles. This was pinterest inspired. Of course! Does anyone else love uncooked pasta? YUMMY.

We learned about bees, recorded new information on an anchor chart, and made our own bees complete with wax paper wings.

How else do you end a 2 week study on insects? By making bugs out of candy!!! We were all sugared up and had a blast getting creative. I tested students' knowledge by having them create the 3 body parts, adding 2 antennae, and 6 legs. 

Students drew their insects and had a friend check their work.

It was such a great unit and my students learned SO much. As an apology for being a super slacker, here are a few freebies for ya. Hope you enjoy and have a wonderful Friday, friends.

Click on the image to download this are/have/can chart and a poem.

AND - click on this image to grab a little insect counting activity.