The Life of a Running Momma: Weekly Learning Theme: Life Cycles

A while back Carter and I were both over learning themes and I decided to take a break. We didn't get back into them until I was missing them and he started getting really interested in specific topics. I'm so glad I did that. Since getting back into learning themes we have had more fun than ever before. It has been amazing how excited he gets and how much he absorbs! During our learning theme on opposites we were playing with a friend when he climbed up on a rock and then slid down. He told his friend, "I was up. Now I'm down. Them are opposites. We are learning about opposites right now." I was so proud to hear him excited to share his learning with others and applying what he had learned to real life situations. Then this week he and Jake were playing and talking while I changed Elsie's diaper. From the other room I heard his sweet voice say, "Jake, butterflies drink nectar from flowers. Did you know that?" It was the cutest! I am so glad I allowed us the flexibility to take a break and then jump back in refreshed and ready to go. I don't think there is anything that brings me more joy than seeing my children learn, master, or do something new. It has been a wonderful adventure. This week we expanded on the butterfly learning theme by learning about the life cycles of other living organisms. It was so much fun!

Listed below are the objectives I am focusing on for the themed weeks. I have revised our objectives to really hone in and focus on specific skills Carter will need to master before kindergarten and are appropriate to his age and development right now. I plan to continue to implement activities to practice and reinforce our previous objectives while putting more emphasis on our new objectives. Some of them won't necessarily be targeted with specific activities during our weeks, but I wanted to list them to help me remember to practice them continually. I'm also adding in a section for Elise now that she is a year old. I don't considers her bullet points objectives, they are experiences I want to make sure to expose her to frequently. Her experiences are listed below Carter as bullet points rather than numbers.

The highlighted objectives below are ones Carter received exposure to during our theme this week:

Begin to organize and focus on writing. (Dictate stories, plan out a story, draw pictures and scribbles to create a book).
Understand same and different.
Accurately tell stories as well as retell the story from a book.

Use age appropriate scissors. (I'm moving on to looking for a thumb and forefinger grasp with writing tools and holding scissors appropriately)
Develop a better understanding of time (for example, be able to describe when things happen using morning, afternoon, night)

Group objects based on a category (sort by defining feature).

Count with one-to-one correspondence, begin to identify numerals, being to use ordinal numbers (first, second, last).

Experiences Elise was exposed to during our theme this week are highlighted below:

Pretend play/Imitate the behaviors of others.
Begin to identify and point at body parts. (Right now I just want to say body parts aloud to her frequently and point them out on myself)
Group based on simple characteristics. (This is something I will do while talking aloud and allowing her to feel objects)
Fill and empty containers.
Begin to hold writing tools and scribble spontaneously.
Identify sounds around her. (Point out sounds and ask her what is making the sound).

Activities/Movement:

As I've done with our last few learning themes, I wrote out what we are learning about on a sentence strip. We then looked at life cycle written out. Carter identified the letters and letter sounds he knew. Then I showed him how I segment sounds and blend them together to determine a word when I'm reading. He saw the leftover section of the sentence strip that I had cut off the end and wanted to cut it on the dotted line. He was so proud he was able to cut the line so nicely right down the middle of the sentence strip. He's really taking off with his scissor skills!

Discussing the letters we saw on the sentence strip.

Cutting the leftover sentence strip.
I pulled all my big teacher versions of Scholastic News articles I had from school that were relevant to life cycles and was excited by how many we had. Carter really enjoys them because they are big, have real photographs, and are easy reads. The first one we read was about lady bugs. We answered questions on the back of the magazine and got to see different kinds of ladybugs. We discussed how the ladybugs looked the same and how they looked different. When we were finished, we used the Scholastic News to help Carter draw a ladybug's life cycle.

Answering true or false questions about lady bugs.

Drawing a lady bug's life cycle.

His finished ladybug life cycle.

I also had a Scholastic News about frogs. We read it and answered questions on the back, coloring in bubbles. I didn't have an Expo marker so we just used a regular marker. It came right off with my special Expo marker spray. Carter loved coloring in the bubbles to answer the questions and felt so proud to be able to color mostly within the circle. When we were finished Carter used the Scholastic News to look at as he drew a frog's life cycle. Elise scribbled with markers while he worked.

Discussing the frog's life cycle and what the eggs looked like, he thought they looked like eye balls.

Coloring in a bubble to answer a question.

Elise drawing a picture while Carter worked on drawing a frog's life cycle.

His finished drawing of a frog's life cycle.
During one of the Second Saturday family events at our local art museum the kids had decorated planters and been given little pods of soil along with seeds. I saved them for this learning theme so we could plant them and watch them grow. Jake was over on the day I planned to plant them so he helped Elise plant hers. They were so cute standing in the chair together and Elise was very attentive watching Jake work. We watered them right away and then started an observation book to track the growth of our plants. I asked Carter and Jake to describe what it looked like in the container. I wrote what each boy said along with the date in their books. Then I drew the outline of the container so they could draw to show what the seeds looked like. I followed the same procedure each time we observed the seeds and Carter got so excited when they began to sprout. They actually sprouted much sooner than I expected which was quite the pleasant surprise!

Preparing to plant our seeds after reading a Scholastic News about plants.

Jake watering Elise's seeds.

Carter drawing to show what the seeds looked like.

Observing his seeds the next day.

Drawing what the seeds looked like a few days later.
We read a scholastic news about dandelions. We discussed what we already knew about dandelions and then looked at the life cycle of a dandelion. When we were finished Carter painted a dandelion bloom using a fork and yellow finger paint. Then he painted a puffball using his fingerprint and white paint. We used the paintings to illustarte the life cycle of a dandelion.

Making a dandelion bloom.

Carter's dandelion life cycle.
I found some tree life cycle sequencing cards here. I showed them to Carter and he was able to put them in order using his knowledge of plant life cycles. Once they were in order, I helped him glue them to paper so he had a tree life cycle chart just like the other life cycle charts he had drawn.

Putting the cards in order.

Gluing the pieces down.
Carter enjoyed learning about all the different life cycles and continued to be very intereseted in the butterfly life cycle. He enjoyed pulling the butterfly, caterpillar, and chrysalis out of sensory bin so he could tell me all about life cycle. He would explain each phase to me and show me the different ones. He also liked putting one out on the table without me seeing it and having me guess which one it was by telling me a bit about it.

Telling me about a butterfly's life cycle.
I found a video of a chick hatching out of it's egg here. Carter was so fascinated by it and loved noticing it peep just like our books had mentioned chicks do as they hatch so their mom will know they are hatching. It was adorable to hear him say, "This is going to be so cute," as the chick started to emerge from the egg. Then he asked me if it used it's egg tooth to get out because he remembered reading about other animals having egg teeth. He enjoyed it so much he asked to see other animals hatching and then wanted to see some animals that are born from their mommys. We ended up watching an alligator hatch, a turtle hatch, a giraffe birth, an elephant birth, and a tiger birth. Carter kept asking for more, he found it so fascinating! I love that he is so curious.

Watching a chick hatch.
I made a couple chicks out of pom poms and gave them to Carter along with a couple Easter eggs. He loved making them hatch. It was so cute because he made sounds like in the video he had seen. He had a blast putting them back in the egg and letting them hatch over and over. When he was finished playing with them, I added them to the sensory bin.

Making our chicks hatch.
I had a really cool poster that came with some Scholastic News magazines I got while teaching. The poster showed different anmals that hatch from eggs. If it is held up to the light you can see through to the other side of the magazine where it talks about which animals hatch from the eggs shown. We held it up to the window so Carter could see through it. He loved telling me which animal hatched from the eggs by peeking at the other side. As we looked at the poster I had Carter identify each of the animals. Then we talked about how the eggs looked the same and how they looked different. After that we discussed how the animals looked the same and how they looked different. Carter said some of them had legs and some did not. When I pointed out which ones had legs, he corrected me that the octopus did not have legs, it had tentacles. I was very impressed and told him that was good thinking.
For Elise, I made a ladybug out of red Play Doh and black buttons. I really pressed the buttons into the Play Doh to make it difficult to pull them out. Then I gave Elise the ladybug and had her pull the buttons off. Carter saw us playing and really wanted a turn. For him I made it a bit more challenging. Before pulling the buttons off, I had him count to see how many dots the ladybug had. Then we found the correct numeral and placed it by the ladybug as he pulled buttons off. As he worked I asked him if all ladybugs were red with black dots and he said, "No, don't you remember the other ones we saw on the paper?" meaning the Scholastic News. He sure has a good memory!

Elise working hard to dismantle the ladybug.

Carter counting the dots.

Putting the number next to the ladybug to represent the number of spots.
As I was making the pom pom chicks, I looked at the pom poms and saw black and yellow sitting together. I decided I should make a bee. I started thinking about how I would link a bee into our life cycle learning theme and came up with the idea to also make some flowers from pom poms and straws. Then I could put both in the sensory bin so Carter could have the bee fly to the flowers to eat nectar and pollinate the flowers. When I showed Carter the bee and the flowers I asked him what the bee would do with the flowers. He told me it would eat nectar from the flowers. Then I reminded him that bees help flowers when they fly from flower to flower by pollinating them which helps the flowers make seeds and progress through their life cycle. He had fun making the bee fly to the flowers, pollinating them as it ate. When he was finished playing with them we added them to the sensory bin.

Having the bee pollinate the flower, we used Play Doh to hold it up on the table, but it could stand on it's own in the rice of the sensory bin.
To play some more with a frog's life cycle, I made a frog and tadpoles using pom poms and frog eggs out of bubble wrap. I had them sitting out on the table when Carter woke up from his nap. He immediately ran over to check them out and I asked him what they were. He said eggs, tadpoles, and frogs. I told him they were each phase of the frog's life cycle and asked him if he could put them in order. Once he'd done that we talked about what each phase was and then counted to see how many phases we had represented. He played with them for a while and then we added them to his sensory bin.

Putting the stages in order.

Playing with the frog eggs.

We used the same sensory bin from our butterfly learning theme. I just left one caterpillar, one butterfly, and the butterfly life cycle set. Then I added a few animals that lay eggs along with some toy eggs. Then as we created things throughout the week, such as the chicks, frogs, bee, and flowers, we added them to the sensory bin.
I found a ladybug life cycle wheel here. I thought it would be good fine motor practice for Carter to spin the wheel and see different stages of a ladybug's life cycle. He did pretty well once he got the hang of it, but it was tricky for him at first. He liked talking about the different stages of a ladybug's life as he spun the wheel and especially liked that ladybugs have yellow eggs.

I was looking through a National Wildlife Federation magazine my mom had sent Carter looking for pictures to use in eggs for animals that hatch from eggs when I found a whole spread talking about monarch butterflies. I cut the pictures out and showed them to Carter. I asked him if he'd like to use the pictures to write a story about monarch butterflies and he agreed. I asked him what he wanted to title his book and he said, "The Monarch Life Cycle". I showed him each picture and we worked together to put them in order for our book. Then I showed him each picture and he told me what to write on the page as he glued the picture down. When we were finished we realized there wasn't a page about eggs so we added one of our own to complete the butterfly's life cycle. It turned out to be a neat book!

At the end of the week we made all the life cycle drawings into a book. Before we stapled them together we compared the life cycles. We talked about how they were the same and how they were different. Then we sorted them into like groups based on whether they started as a seed or an egg. Then we counted the number of stages on each page and put the numeral next to each stage to represent how many stages there were. As we talked about them, we said this stage would be first, next, last.

Counting the stages.

Comparing the life cycle charts.

Craft:

After we read our dandelion Scholastic News, we made a puffball dandelion with fingerpaint. I drew the stem and then used the kids' fingerprints to make a round ball of the white seeds around the top so they each had their own flower. I love anything involving their prints and I thought it turned out really cute!

We read a few books about flowers and plants' life cycles. I asked Carter if he wanted to draw the life cycle of a flower. He said he wanted to use watercolors so we used them to create a flower's life cycle. Once it was dry I cut out the pieces and glued them to construction paper, adding some words like I had done with our other life cycle pages.

Special Snack:

Anytime we have Easter eggs out for a learning theme, Carter asks for his snack in eggs at least once during the week. So I put some Cheerio's, raisins, and popcorn into the eggs one day for snack and both the kids were delighted. As Carter opened his eggs I had him tell me different animals that hatch out of eggs when they are born.

Make Believe:

One day we were playing Duplo and Carter made a ladybug. He started flying the ladybug around, having it land on flowers and do what ladybugs would do. It was cute to watch him pretend it was a ladybug and act out a ladybug's life.

Making his ladybug fly.

Songs:

I made up a song to the tune of 5 Little Ducks and called it 5 Little Eggs. I filled 5 eggs with different toys or pictures of animals that hatch from eggs. We sang the song and filled in the blanks with the animal once Carter made it hatch from it's egg. As we played, I had him count the number of eggs we had and then the number of eggs that had hatched. I made the comment a few different times that the numbers were all different ways to make the number 5, just for that little exposure to addition facts that equal 5. This would be a great activity to play with a child working on addition so they can see all the different ways you can make a sum of 5. I used the words first, second, third, fourth, and fifth for some practice with ordinal numbers. We used these animals: duckling, tadpole, caterpillar, chick, and turtle. The song went like this:

5 little babies, they hatched one day,

cracking the shell to make their way.

All the eggs said crack, crack, crack, crack,

And out of the first egg came a ________.

4 little babies, they hatched one day,

cracking the shell to make their way.

All the eggs said crack, crack, crack, crack,

And out of the second egg came a ______.

We continued singing until all the eggs had hatched.

Counting to see how many eggs we had and picking the number to represent them.

Choosing numbers to represent how many eggs had cracked and how many were left.

Opening the last egg to find a chick.

Technology:

During our butterfly learning theme I found a fun computer game where you put the stages of a butterfly's life cycle in order here. As Carter played it I noticed they also had games for a frog and a bird life cycle. I saved the link and he played the game for each of those animals.

Playing the frog life cycle game.

Playing the bird life cycle game.

Field Trip/Interactive Experience:

We hadn't been to our Botanic Garden in about a year. During that time they opened the Children's Garden and I had been wanting to go. When I saw they were having an event called "Super Seeds" where they would show the kids seeds in various stages of the life cycle, I knew it would be the perfect field trip for our life cycle learning theme. They had a table set up with all kinds of different seeds for the kids to look at and explore. She showed the kids some seeds that were beginning to grow into seedlings and some that had started to sprout. We were then able to look at different plants and the seeds they produced. At the end Carter got to plant his own seeds to take home. When we were finished we went for a stroll through the Children's Garden which was awesome!

Observing a seed.

Planting his seeds.