Butterfly Garden

The Easter Bunny brought Eva a butterfly garden and a few weeks ago the mail order caterpillars arrived.  Eva watched as they grew, spun their chrysalises and finally emerged as butterflies.  It was absolutely fascinating.  Every morning, as soon as she woke up, Eva had to run to peek at her creatures and observe how they were changing.  We referenced the butterfly lifecycle chart she made earlier in the spring throughout the experience.

Yesterday we released the butterflies back into the wild. 

I cannot recommend the Butterfly Garden enough.  We will definitely be ordering another set of caterpillars!  This time around we just observed but next time I plan on making a log for Eva to record her observations- counting caterpillars, their sizes, when they spun their chrysalises, when they emerged as butterflies, etc.  The options are endless!  

Bugs Glorious Bugs!

Eva has been taking a class about bugs at our science museum and brought home some really cute crafts!  Last week she made a thumbprint caterpillar

and a fun ladybug magnet who now hangs out with her letters.

The ladybug was made by filling a plastic spoon with plaster and then pushing a magnet into it.  When it was dry it slid right out of the spoon and Eva was able to paint it red and then add spots and a face.
This week was all about butterflies.  The teachers wrapped a few kids up in toilet paper so they could be like caterpillars in a chrysalis and then they broke out- Eva thought it was hysterical but wouldn't try herself.  They also made this to show the stages of the butterfly's life cycle using different pastas:

Eva also got to meet a few bugs up close including a tarantula

and a vinegaroon (a cousin of the scorpion).

Bye Bye Bugs

Here's a quick wrap-up of the rest of the bug projects we did this week.
We made a ladybug using a red paper plate, black paint, a circle sponge (I cut a circle out of a kitchen sponge and glued it to a paint brush handle that had lost it's sponge) and black construction paper and pipe cleaners.

We also made a spider web and spider.  The web is glue and glitter, while the spider is Eva's handprints minus her thumbs.

Here is our special dessert from the other night- Worms in the Dirt- yum!

So easy to make too!  Just whip up some instant chocolate pudding and stir in some chocolate chips.  Top with crushed Oreos and gummy worms.  If you want to get really fancy you can serve it in a flower pot or bucket with a shovel for scooping.  Eva was a huge fan and keeps asking to make it again.

We hope you enjoyed bug week- we made it through without too many shrieks or moans!

A Bug Medley

Today we encountered a variety of bugs- beetles, ants, ladybugs and butterflies.  We started out by finishing our butterflies from yesterday.  (Believe it or not, some of them were still wet when we got up this morning!)  We added faces and antennae to complete them.  They are so colorful!

It was a hot one today, so Eva donned her ladybug bathing suit and cooled off under the ladybug sprinkler.

We dried off and headed inside to make fingerprint bugs.  Eva dipped her fingers in ink and left her mark on green paper.

She then told me what she wanted each print to be and I added the appropriate faces, antennae, legs and wings.  To make the scene a little more garden-like, Eva then added some flower and bug stickers.

Bugs also visited for lunch today in the form of "ants on a log."  These are easy to make and there are many varieties out there.  We used celery, cream cheese and raisins but I've seen them made with peanut butter, bananas and chocolate chips too.

Of course, Eva ate the raisins first and then licked out all the cream cheese before handing me the celery back for a refill.  She did eventually eat the celery though, so it was worth it.

We also made another special buggy treat for dessert tomorrow when Grandma and Grandpa visit.  I'll give you a sneak peek at my quality control assistant.  Can you guess what we made?

From Caterpillar to Butterfly

Look who's sporting a caterpillar clip!  These little guys have been popping up all over.  We continued on with the caterpillar theme by putting together a few caterpillar puzzles.  We have two Eric Carle puzzles and this little love bug one:

It was such a nice day we put them together outside.  It's amazing how "new" an old toy or game can become just by moving it to a new environment!
As we all know, caterpillars become beautiful butterflies so we painted some very colorful ones.  I was inspired by Jill's awesome craft.  I started out by folding some white paper in half and then reopening it.  Eva then squirted paint in various parts of the paper.  (She couldn't quite understand keeping the paint to one side of the fold but it worked out fine.)

Next we refolded the paper and pressed down on it to spread the paint around.

When we opened them, we discovered beautiful butterflies!  Eva could not get enough of this so we made several.  This is definitely a craft we will be doing again.

They are still drying (the Crayola finger paint we used was great for squirting and has very vibrant colors but takes a looooong time to dry) so you'll have to check back tomorrow to see how the finished products look.
Check out this book if you want to read more about the life cycle of butterflies.  The illustrations are gorgeous and the language is toddler-friendly.

Caterpillar Clips and Wiggly Worms

We've started out bug week learning more about things that crawl.  Eva has been fascinated with the worms in our gardens and loves to chase the ants on our driveway.  She's also a big fan of the Very Hungry Caterpillar so I thought it would be fun to make our own fuzzy little caterpillars.  We began with a few wooden clothespins clipped onto a big tongue depressor to keep them front flopping around.  I drizzled some glue on each and Eva applied little pompoms to the glue.

She was very particular about making sure that each caterpillar had one of each color pompom- it's amazing the details that toddlers pay attention to!

Once they were dry, I twisted on half a pipe cleaner on each for antenna and now Eva has some fun clips to decorate the house (or garden) with.

She also initiated some free art by squirting glue on some scrap paper and arranging the rest of the pompoms.

To continue with the crawling bug trend, I dug some earthworms out of our garden for Eva to examine in her sensory tub.

She wasn't ready to touch one herself but she volunteered me to do it.

She was okay with putting her lady bug sprinkler in the tub though and touching that!