Spiders!!

The first BIG interest of the Busy Bee's .....they saw and became fascinated with those creepy crawly spiders.....so what did the children know before we begun our lesson... it's always fun to see what they think they know about a subject.

Then we needed to know who's scared of Spiders.......I won't take part in this survey because I want to never show them my FEAR....of course I'm not scared....(wink).

Then the learning begun....we made cobwebs....we counted spiders for their webs, we sorted bugs by color and then by make (amazing job my Busy Bee's) the children had books all around the classroom about spiders and we added spiders and webs to pretend play center.

We did lots of spider walks on the playground...including a spider race.

We sorted bugs and spiders....first by color

We made our own spider webs

(equal parts salt and flour then add water to a squeeze bottle.  Let the children squirt what they need on black paper then shift and move the paper to make your design.  When it drys there is a nice sparkle)

We put spiders to there webs.  Each web had a number and we added that many spiders to that web.

We put our spiders in numerical order.  This is one to twenty....play around with this idea depending on how far your students can go.  Some students only worked on numbers one to five.  (spiders were found in Mailbox catalog colored added number and dots then laminated).

We focused on the shapes circle and rectangles...then the children built spiders with these shapes. This smarty Busy bee needed some squares also.....look at the eyes :)

Introduced new vocabulary and the children wrote the new words copying letters from the sentence strips that were introduced to the writing center.

We sung "Their's a spider on my head", and re enacted the story with the plastic spider rings.  These rings also helped with postional words.  We worked on put your spider beside you.  under your leg, on top of your hand, between your feet. 

Making our spider hats....adding a little creation the children's hats are spectacular...(will show photos later when all the glue dries)

Needed something sticky....we made slime.

(equal parts Elmer glue and liquid starch)

Creating webs with paper plates...the children finger painted their plates then they weaved their webs.

A few of the wonderful books that where added to the classroom.....The art work was for the children to recreate in the art center...they really added their creativity to this project.

We caught an awesome BIG black house spider...The children added him to the science center and observed his movements....he even spun a web in the top of the container!!

Completed and on display....a finished web and a handprint spider.

Up close and personal with our Black House Spider!

We added a web to our cozy library center...this was an added bonus to get the children into the Spider books.

We also added spiders to our water....

This awesome lesson is not done yet...Check back for more awesome spider fun!

Preparing for Open House and My New Bees

Preparation for our newest bees.  Decided this year to prepare the hive with a little more color.

As parents entered the Busy Bee hive they saw our Be Kind sign as they signed in ....The sign simply says...."Be Kind..grab a bee and donate if you can!!"  The bee's had helpful items like notebook paper for our B.E.E folders, Expo Markers, no touch soap refills, googly eyes, etc.

using a dish draining rack to hold folders....each folder has a Busy Bee name on it and parents were asked to grab the folder with their child's name....(this helps me know who I'm missing :)).  This rack was later moved to our writing center to hold notebooks, pencils and pens. 

Just a quick classroom overview.  This is that parents saw as they entered.  The classroom is setup to pass ECERS, and to be inviting and welcoming to each child.....

Each child needs his or her own work display area....so here we go.... Welcome to the 2012-2013 school year!

Thanks for visiting!

                                                                 
I'm buzzing with delight that you took a few minutes out of your Busy schedule to check in on the Busy Bee's.  It will be my attempt with this blog to keep parents informed on what we're doing in our hive but to also share with other educators some great developmentally appropriate activities that my special Busy Bee's enjoyed.  My heart and passion is in teaching so if this blog helps anyone in any way then I'm grateful.  Come back to visit us again really soon as I will be working extra hard to get information posted!!