Preschool Playschool: We Caught the Reading Bug!

Today we were all about bugs and insects during Preschool Playschool! We were sad to that Miss Theresa, from the county office, wasn't able to join us but we did our best to have a great time exploring. Instead of our normal format of play then read, today we read books and explored after.

Warm up:

We did our normal warm up but practiced wiggling our fingers like spiders in preparation for singing songs about The Itsy Bitsy Spider and his cousin The Great Big Spider. Versions of the song can be found on the site Bus Songs.com.

Books:

We read Jim Ayelsworth's Old Black Fly. The group helped shoo the fly away by repeating the chorus: "Shoo Fly! Shoo Fly! Shoo!"

Next we practiced the art of being spiders when we read Lydia Monks Aaaarrgghh! Spider!. We have very, very, very good screamers and spiders wigglers!

Last we read Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. One of our library friends wore a puppet and we used flannel pieces to re-enact the story.

After our books the children could choose from several stations to explore.

Stations:

The Observation Station.
Children could observe bugs through magnifying glasses, a kaleidoscope, or just with their eyes.

Two arts and crafts stations.

Children could make their very own hungry caterpillars with colorful circles or try weaving strips of paper through their choice of a paper ladybug, bumblebee, caterpillar or butterfly.

The Spider web

There was a gross motor station to get us up and moving. movement station: Using an idea from No Time for Flashcards we created half a spider web using duct tape. On the web I placed plastic geckos and plastic bugs. Children were charged with navigating the web without getting caught by a gecko or "falling" off the web. 

Reading nook

The books we read, as well as other options, were made available if anyone wanted to re-read them. We also had bug puppets and a Very Hungry Caterpillar board game that children could play with.

Instructions for the Observation Station

The Observation Station

A very busy caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Game

Making more caterpillars

Walking the web

More web work

Weaving all around!

The favorite station of the day

The web!

Miss Rachee's sample

Supplies. Lots of expert scissor work!

Puppets from our grandkits

Join us Mondays for Preschool Playschool beginning at 10:00 AM. Next week we'll pretend to be archaeologists as we explore DINOSAURS!
-r