Happy Bug Days!!!

In our classroom, K's observed "Happy Bug Day"- a silk screened  print by American Pop Artist Andy Warhol.  We discussed the fact that he was a Graphic Designer and created works of art using a "silk screening" technique.  This led to a wonderful discussion prompted by the children about spiders and their ability to use silk to spin tread.  Earlier in the week, we made comparisons between 6 legged insects and 8 legged arachnids then heard a story entitled Sophie's Masterpiece by Eileen Spinelli about a spider, well in age, that decides to spin one last gift for the baby of a new mother who spare her life.

Later, on at our SK playground, we found an intricately spun spider web across the climbing rope on the play structure. Olivia, while inspecting the web commented lovingly..."a masterpiece."




After a discussion of the characteristics of an "insect," K's used "Scrap Box" materials, crayons, chenille sticks, and stick dots to construct their own bug.  They discussed the number of eyes of some bugs, antennae, number of legs, and number of body "segments."  We also practiced our fine motor skills by cutting out the heads  from circles drawn on construction paper. Niccolo even added a probiscus to his bug design. 

During Circle Time, K's  attempted to create their own "human" spider web.  The group was asked to sit  on the floor  in a circle and catch a ball of yarn being tossed to them.  They were to wrap the yarn around their own waist then toss the yarn to the person sitting directly across the circle from them.  They in turn would also wrap the yarn around themselves. We  repeated this pattern until all of the  persons in the circle were attached to the "web."  We then placed a puppet spider onto the web to test it's strength and durability.  Our last challenge was to attempt to stand up as a group keeping the web intact and the spider balanced.  After many tries we cheered at our eventual success!  We later attempted the task again with Mrs. Carpenter's class and the K-2 Buddies.  They all exhibited great teamwork and cooperation and were successful after just two  tries!!

Mrs. Carpenter holds on tight to the lead string!

K Buddies attempted to catch the ball of yarn- or not!

 K -2's show great balance, cooperation, and team work.