It just so happened that we started #8 "Zippy's Tall Tale", a book in the Butterfly Meadow series by Olivia Moss this week. We had stopped at a local kids consignment store and the owner recommended this series. We zipped through the first one and started this one on Monday. I am reading several chapters to my little one each night before bed. Although parts of it were a little above a kindergarten level (I adapt the text as I read) it wasn't bad for the most part. It doesn't have a villain, rather a problem that Dazzle, the main butterfly must solve and is a highly predictable text. I have Elly summarize what has happened so far in the story before beginning to read each night and talk about what she thinks will happen next after we read.
Luckily, it was one of those weeks where learning just fell into place. These little guys showed up on our milkweed plants on Wednesday.
Elly wrote some fiction and nonfiction journal pages about them. It is really neat that she is able to verbally identify the differences in her writing.
Then, our Saturday plan was to attend a local butterfly farm's first annual "Monarch Festival." (It is not every week things fall into place this nicely!) Mid-week, this post came up in my news feed http://deceptivelyeducational.blogspot.com/2011/09/making-bird-butterfly-masks.html. What luck! I printed the butterfly masks and let the kids decorate them so they could wear them to the festival. And the masks were a hit! The kids got many compliments. There we got to interact with butterflies, dance to live music, ride ponies and learn more about migration.
We are looking into participating with some research projects connected to http://monarchwatch.com/. Overall, it was an amazing learning week!
If you are making learning fun for your afterschooler, we'd love you have you visit and join a new afterschool bloghop with
Sept 11 - Natalie (Mouse Grows Mouse Learns)
Sept 18 - MaryAnne (MamaSmiles)
Sept 25 - Julie (Just Playing Around)
Oct 2 - Kelly (Little Wonders' Days)
Oct 9 - Amanda and Kim (The Educators' Spin on It)
Oct 16 - Christy (Superheroes and Princesses)
Sept 11 - Natalie (Mouse Grows Mouse Learns)
Sept 18 - MaryAnne (MamaSmiles)
Sept 25 - Julie (Just Playing Around)
Oct 2 - Kelly (Little Wonders' Days)
Oct 9 - Amanda and Kim (The Educators' Spin on It)
Oct 16 - Christy (Superheroes and Princesses)
This looks like such a fun week. I love, love the butterfly mask. There is a garden a couple of hours away that has a butterfly pavilion filled with monarchs. It's such a peaceful place.
ReplyDeleteLittle Wonders' Days
Lovely butterfly projects. Thanks for linking up :)
ReplyDeleteOoh, this is really lucky that everything fell together for you this week! I have to show this post to Anna and see if she might want to be a butterfly for Halloween :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great week, what a great idea to have her summarize what's happened on the story and ask what she thinks will happen next. So glad you shared on Monday Madness!
ReplyDeletewhat a fantastic week! I LOVE when things fall into place like that!
ReplyDeleteThose masks are fabulous and I will have to look into the books. I have yet to read chapter books bc my youngest gets a bit wiggly during long books but she loves fairies and butterflies so maybe this would help since it would interest her.
Thanks for linking to the Sunday Showcase & hope to see you again this week!
Bern
http://momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com/search/label/Sunday%20Showcase
What a wonderful time you must have had! The mask is so pretty.
ReplyDeleteThank you for linking to Read.Explore.Learn.
Love it, what a great idea!
ReplyDeleteSo many awesome things they learned from one subject. Love the masks.
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking up at Feed Me Books Friday. That's really what you call a serendipitous week! The masks are gorgeous! I appreciate your strategy for summary and prediction - we might have to add some longer books to the bedtime queue just so we can practice that!
ReplyDeleteOh, I love this post! I have a preschooler. We did a mini lesson on butterflies and caterpillars last month. How wonderful to have such a hands on experience!! Here is a link to my blog post on the activities we did...thanks for sharing!!
ReplyDeletehttp://carrotsareorange.com/2011/08/22/caterpillar-butterfly-mini-unit/
Thank you for linking up to Discover and Explore. Isn't it wonderful when educational opportunities align so nicely? I haven't heard of the Butterfly Meadow series yet, but it definitely looks like something my daughter would be interested in. Thanks for sharing!
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