Outdoor Activity: Ride bikes to our local playground
Math Activity: Harry Potter Color by Math Problem
Literacy (and Science): Read "The Butterfly" by Sabrina Crewe, Start RJ's Blog, Write one birthday thank you note and take pictures.
Science Activity: Crystal Growing (Start, Document on RJ's Blog)
Science Activity: Crystal Growing (Start, Document on RJ's Blog)
Art Activity: Draw Crystal as it is now
Swimming in the Pool
How it Went:
Playground: This was supposed to be a standard ride around the block to the playground, play, and come back before it got too hot. First, L wanted the balance bike instead of the pedal bike (which has the push bar). I really want him to work on his pedaling, but as long as he was doing something other than walking there, I let him choose. It was just a lot slower, since I couldn't speed him up with the push bar. Then RJ found the inches deep puddle from the sprinklers and spent the rest of the time riding back and forth through it on his bike. L insisted on following him, but unlike RJ, was wearing his sneakers rather than crocs or sandals (which I purposely put on him because he hates getting bark in his sandals!), and immediately got angry that they got wet, even though I did warn him that they would and that I didn't have his sandals with me. So he got mad, took them off and just ran through the puddle. I try to pick my battles wisely, and running through the large puddle was fine by me as long as he knew that I didn't have dry clothes immediately available and that he did, in fact, need to wear clothing on the way home (for sun protection mostly, I could care less about public 3 year old nudity). He did need some convincing to let me get his shoes back on to head home though. Anyway, this playground trip and the short trip to and from it took a lot longer than usual!
Harry Potter Color-by-Number: I'm officially in love with the person who created all these Harry Potter worksheets. I am normally anti-worksheet, but these seemed fun and related to what RJ & L are most into these days, so I decided to try them. I figured that coloring by number was too simple for RJ, so I blacked out the numbers in the key and put in 7 easy addition problems where the sum matched the number paired with the color. I gave L one, in its original configuration, since he does know his numbers and I colored the words, so he didn't have to read to know which color he should use. He was happy to do the first color, but then quit and refused to do any more coloring, even when I told him that he could color it however he wanted. He really doesn't like drawing/coloring for more than 5 seconds, which I'm trying to work on, looking for things that will interest him. At 3.5, I'm not super concerned though, and we just find other ways to work on fine motor control. Given that he LOVES destroying and creativity reassembling all of RJ's lego minifigures on a regular basis, I'm confident that he has pretty good dexterity. RJ loved this though and stayed engaged the whole time, taking his time and coloring neatly, even!
The Butterfly - The book mostly reinforced what we've already learned about the butterfly life cycle, but there are a few new concepts too. I'll list the theme concepts covered below.
RJ's Blog - RJ and I talked over the weekend about him having his own blog to document science projects and write stories to share. So today, we actually set one up on his google account (which I created a LONG time ago when I needed more space on Picasa for our family photos), picked the name, and selected the background, template, and layout. Now we just have to add entries.
Birthday Note: We didn't get to this. We really have to - it's been a few weeks since his birthday party!
Crystal Growing: This was part of a science kit, so it was basically reading a blurb about crystals provided by them (of course RJ just focused on the fact that they mentioned that some people believe that crystals have magical or medicinal properties), boiling some water, mixing the crystal growing powder in and pouring it over a rock. He seemed to like the process, but I was a bit disappointed because the powder didn't dissolve in the boiling water fully as it was supposed to. I'm hoping the crystal will still grow, but we'll have to wait and see.
Once we finished preparing our rock for growing a crystal, RJ drew a picture of it as is, and labeled it "Crystal Day 1"
Swimming: The boys mostly played Quidditch in our small pool, using noodles as brooms and a shovel as the "snitch". Harry Potter has even taken the swimming pool by storm.
Butterfly Theme Concepts Covered:
Playground: This was supposed to be a standard ride around the block to the playground, play, and come back before it got too hot. First, L wanted the balance bike instead of the pedal bike (which has the push bar). I really want him to work on his pedaling, but as long as he was doing something other than walking there, I let him choose. It was just a lot slower, since I couldn't speed him up with the push bar. Then RJ found the inches deep puddle from the sprinklers and spent the rest of the time riding back and forth through it on his bike. L insisted on following him, but unlike RJ, was wearing his sneakers rather than crocs or sandals (which I purposely put on him because he hates getting bark in his sandals!), and immediately got angry that they got wet, even though I did warn him that they would and that I didn't have his sandals with me. So he got mad, took them off and just ran through the puddle. I try to pick my battles wisely, and running through the large puddle was fine by me as long as he knew that I didn't have dry clothes immediately available and that he did, in fact, need to wear clothing on the way home (for sun protection mostly, I could care less about public 3 year old nudity). He did need some convincing to let me get his shoes back on to head home though. Anyway, this playground trip and the short trip to and from it took a lot longer than usual!
Harry Potter Color-by-Number: I'm officially in love with the person who created all these Harry Potter worksheets. I am normally anti-worksheet, but these seemed fun and related to what RJ & L are most into these days, so I decided to try them. I figured that coloring by number was too simple for RJ, so I blacked out the numbers in the key and put in 7 easy addition problems where the sum matched the number paired with the color. I gave L one, in its original configuration, since he does know his numbers and I colored the words, so he didn't have to read to know which color he should use. He was happy to do the first color, but then quit and refused to do any more coloring, even when I told him that he could color it however he wanted. He really doesn't like drawing/coloring for more than 5 seconds, which I'm trying to work on, looking for things that will interest him. At 3.5, I'm not super concerned though, and we just find other ways to work on fine motor control. Given that he LOVES destroying and creativity reassembling all of RJ's lego minifigures on a regular basis, I'm confident that he has pretty good dexterity. RJ loved this though and stayed engaged the whole time, taking his time and coloring neatly, even!
The Butterfly - The book mostly reinforced what we've already learned about the butterfly life cycle, but there are a few new concepts too. I'll list the theme concepts covered below.
RJ's Blog - RJ and I talked over the weekend about him having his own blog to document science projects and write stories to share. So today, we actually set one up on his google account (which I created a LONG time ago when I needed more space on Picasa for our family photos), picked the name, and selected the background, template, and layout. Now we just have to add entries.
Birthday Note: We didn't get to this. We really have to - it's been a few weeks since his birthday party!
Crystal Growing: This was part of a science kit, so it was basically reading a blurb about crystals provided by them (of course RJ just focused on the fact that they mentioned that some people believe that crystals have magical or medicinal properties), boiling some water, mixing the crystal growing powder in and pouring it over a rock. He seemed to like the process, but I was a bit disappointed because the powder didn't dissolve in the boiling water fully as it was supposed to. I'm hoping the crystal will still grow, but we'll have to wait and see.
Once we finished preparing our rock for growing a crystal, RJ drew a picture of it as is, and labeled it "Crystal Day 1"
Swimming: The boys mostly played Quidditch in our small pool, using noodles as brooms and a shovel as the "snitch". Harry Potter has even taken the swimming pool by storm.
Butterfly Theme Concepts Covered:
- Butterflies lay their eggs on leaves
- Eggs are tiny
- After 4 days caterpillars emerge
- Caterpillars are very small
- First food is their eggshell
- Caterpillars eat leaves
- Caterpillars grow fast
- Caterpillars' skin spilts when it gets too tight
- a new looser skin is underneath
- New skin is colorful with stripes
- Caterpillar has many legs
- 6 front legs
- Help caterpillar feed
- 10 back legs
- Legs have hooks to help caterpillar hold onto plants
- Caterpillars have predators
- Colors tell predators that it tastes bad
- Fully grown at 18 days
- Caterpillar sheds skin 4 times
- When it's full grown, it attaches its tail end to a plant
- Pupa stage is when the caterpillar forms the chrysalis
- Caterpillar's skin splits again as it's forming a chrysalis
- Skin of chrysalis is soft, but hardens soon
- Chrysalis has tiny holes to let air in and out
- Inside the creature is completely changing shape
- [I added what we read from another book: Remember that the caterpillar actually turns to liquid and the cells reorganize to form a butterfly.]
- At two weeks the chrysalis has turned more transparent and you can see the butterfly inside
- Chrysalis splits and the butterfly crawls out
- Butterfly has wings and antennae
- Butterfly has only 3 pairs of legs
- Butterfly's wings are initially crumpled and wet
- Blood pumps into their veins, the wings stretch
- Dries the wings in the sun
- Wings are covered in scales
- Two wings on each side of body
- Scales give butterfly its colors
- Colors warn predators that the butterfly tastes bad
- Butterfly eats nectar from flowers through a proboscis
- [I added that the proboscis is a tubelike tongue that they drink through]
- Butterflies like warmth
- In the fall, they migrate to warmer places
- They spend winter asleep on leaves and branches of trees
- Migrate back in the spring
- Butterflies have mating smells in their wings
- Males and females find each other by the smell
- [I added that mating is what they do to make a baby, in this case eggs with caterpillars in them]
- Female butterfly lays eggs on a leave
- She leaves the eggs to hatch on their own
- Butterflies need wild places with wildflowers containing nectar and the right plants to lay their eggs on
- Parts of a Butterfly:
- Wings
- Covered in tiny hairy scales
- Thorax
- Middle part of the body [I added that it had the legs]
- Abdomen
- Rear part of the body
- Antennae
- Used to smell and sense things around them
- Head
- Front part of the body
- Proboscis
- Used for sucking nectar
- Rolled up when not feeding
- Compound eyes
- Made of hundreds of tiny eyes that each see part of the whole picture
- Feet
- Used to walk
- Used to taste plants before eating or laying eggs on them
- Butterflies are insects
- All insects have three parts to their body
- Head
- Thorax
- Abdomen
- 6 legs
- Wings
- Butterflies in this book were monarchs
- Other butterflies
- Adonis Blue (Europe)
- Apollo (Europe)
- Marbled White (Europe)
- Queen Alexandra's Birdwing (Southeast Asia)
- World's largest
- Long Tailed Skipper (North America) [Where we live]
- Red Admiral (Northern Hemisphere) [Whole top of the globe]
- Australian Beak (Australia)
- Easter Tiger Swallowtail (North America)
- Monarch Butterflies live in North America and migrate North and South across America in certain routes (pictured)
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