Storytime, week 5

[edenfalling]

This week both Mark and Dawn (my co-teachers) were out of town, so I had two parents in to help. The story was The Very Hungry Caterpillar -- a classic book! -- and the activity was making caterpillars out of egg cartons and pipe cleaners. Very fun. Then popcorn and apple juice for snack.

We closed by going through the life cycle of caterpillars and butterflies -- you know, pretend you're an egg, then hatch and crawl around, then wrap silk around yourself and become a chrysalis, and then hatch into a butterfly and flap your wings as you run around. It's good to have activities that let the kids run around a bit. Also, I got to ask the kids what kind of food they ate as caterpillars, and what colors they were as butterflies... because many kinds of butterfly are species-specific in what they can and will eat, which is one reason there are a lot fewer butterflies around these days. It's hard for them to find the right plants.

Comments

[lanoyee.livejournal.com]

The Very Hungry Caterpillar... oh, memories! I bet the kids had fun with that.

... wow. I just learned someting new. ^^;

[edenfalling]

Yes, all the kids knew the story. It's such a great story -- mostly because the pages and illustrations are such a great fit for that age group.

Butterflies will often only lay their eggs on one particular plant species, like, say milkweed, or potato leaves, and the caterpillars often can't eat any other plants. Once they become butterflies, they can usually drink nectar from any flower, but that doesn't help much if they all die before they reach metamorphosis. And the reduction in plant cover means that there are fewer caterpillars, which means that even if birds and bats and wasps continue to kill the same absolute number, the percentage of dead caterpillars skyrockets, and we see huge reductions in the number of butterflies that survive to adulthood.

It's very sad. There are some ecological campaigns to restore native plant cover so local butterfly species will have more potential habitat, but it's hard to make people see the beauty of a seemingly untended swathe of wildflowers and weeds when they compare it to ornamental plants and short grass. *sigh*

[lanoyee.livejournal.com]

That's true - and they're really nice illustrations, too.

Hm, I see. That's how it is for many animal species nowadays, eh? :( They mostly don't die because humans actively kill them, but rather because they're robbed of their food and environment.

Strange - I've always preferred wildly growing plants to straight, orderly gardens. But not many people see it that way, I agree.

[willowgreen.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you're having a good time teaching this year!

What curriculum are you using?

--Willowgreen, currently serving as a trustee rather than a teacher but hoping to get back to teaching sometime in the next decade

[edenfalling]

The "Storytime" curriculum. The lesson plans are about as bare-bones as you can get -- one opening question, one story, one activity, and one potential closing discussion/activity/thingywhatsit. All parts except the story can be left out if need be, in favor of free play. It's basically a way to make a gentle transition between the free play of nursery care and the somewhat more structured lessons that start in kindgergarten and 1st/2nd grade.