Spring Theme: Bugs, Bees and Butterflies

Lately, we have been doing several Spring Themed activities. Since there are so many fun spring ideas, I decided to divide it out a bit. Here are the activities we have done related to buys, bees and butterflies. These are only a few quick things on the topic. Sometime in the next couple of years I'd like to do a bigger unit where we can go a bit more in depth.

Butterfly math spinner game (from my spring math printables)

Math boxes with butterfly, dragonfly, bee and lady bug erasers.

Insect 3 Part Cards with Toob Insects. We've done this in the past, but it has been so long that it felt new to him.

Buggy Playdough. For this kit I used our Garden Bugs rollers, some bee and hexagon cookie cutters, some textured wooden beads, some flower and bee decorative buttons and some flower buttons.

Butterfly bead pattern making (from my spring math printables).

Digging butterfly beads out of therapy putty to make a graph and answer question. Graphing sheet can be printed here.

To go with the "bee" theme I put a black piece of paper at the bottom of a tray and added some yellow sand. He then used a straw to write his spelling words (his finger would have worked better, but he chose to use the straw).

Caterpillar hole punching activity from Early Learning Ideas

Honeycomb memory game (from my Bee Tot Pack).

Bee 3 part cards (from my Bee Tot Pack).

Sorting bug lifecycles (from The Pinay Homeschooler). I ended up adding a book on ladybugs.

Same activity with butterflies instead.

We have lots of books about bugs, spiders and butterflies, so I only put some on the shelf. From this shelf the favorites were What Makes a Bug a Bug? and Peep Inside Bug Homes.

This shelf had some of our bee books, including Look Inside The World of Bees and Why Do We Need Bees? (I ended up becoming a UBAM consultant because Archer likes these Lift-the-Flap books so much).

Bee and ladybug crafts he did at preschool.

 

Spring Literacy Printable Activities

 If you've been following the blog recently, you'll notice that  I've been making both math and literacy activities around different themes. Both Archer and I find it more fun that "regular" school activities. Since he is not quite 4, school is still something we only do semiregularly and in a light hearted manner. Here are some of the Spring Literacy Activities I made for him this month.

I started off with this syllable counting worksheet. He likes to do them with bingo chips and a wand.

Word family umbrellas and raindrops. Initially, he sorted the raindrops under each umbrella, but then decided they should go on top.

Flower pot sight word scramble. For this activity I made a sheet that had various sight words and then put all the letters for each word into a mini flower pot. I used flower letter beads, but you could easily use other types of letters. The idea is he goes through each pot and unscrambles the words.

Print your Spring Literacy Activities HERE!

Spring Math Activities

I've been having a lot of fun making themed printable math activities the last few months. It's also so much more enjoyable for Archer than just practicing math skills on worksheets. Here are some of the spring activities I made recently.

Math Addition boxes. I used these insect erasers, but you could adapt it by using colored pony beads or something else. I slipped the answer sheet into a page protector so he can do it with dry erase marker.

Something new I decided to try was doing subtraction boxes. The boxes themselves didn't change, but the worksheet is set up as subtraction rather than addition.

 Therapy putty graphing. I put little butterfly pony beads in the putty for him to dig out and build a "graph" with. Then I have a results sheet. You could easily use other beads of the same colors with the same answer sheets.

Flower graphing practice. The top has different types of patterns for him to build on the flowers below. I used the same butterfly pony beads as with the putty activity, but you could easily use regular beads, pom poms or other manipulatives. To help him visualize and keep track of which pattern he's on, I make sure to have enough extra beads that he can put them on the letters at the top. 

Spring flower pot money counting activity. For this I got some itty bitty pots from the craft store, added some cheap flowers and then some coins to each one. I have the recording sheet for him to count the coins and write the totals. I am also anticipating using these pots for other activities as well.

Print the Spring Math Activities Here

Insects and Bugs Vocabulary Cards

Archer eats through new vocabulary materials faster than I can create it! Here are some insect cards that I made to go with the Insect Toob, although you can use them without the toys! You can read about how we use our vocabulary cards and print other cards for free on my Vocabulary Card Page.

Print the Insects and Bugs Vocabulary Cards Here

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Flower Vocabulary Cards

Combing Little Reader Lessons with Montessori style 3 Part Cards is one of my favorite ways to build vocabulary.  Both my boys have loved new word lessons.  Whenever I can, I also make lessons that have Toobs or other toys to go with them, for a tactile matching activity.

Recently, I made a lesson and vocabulary cards to go with the Flower Toob.

You're welcome to print the cards for free from here.

Check out other free vocabulary cards here!

Spanish Spring Printables

I have to admit, I've been pretty bad about making materials in Spanish.  However, I'm hoping to break that trend!  Here are some Spanish Spring Vocabulary cards I made recently!  I'll make a corresponding Little Reader lesson once I have a new computer (my old one died on me).

Check out my other Spanish Resources Here!

Plant Life Cycles Week

Since I was planning on planting my garden, we spent the week focusing on plants and their life cycles.

Of course, we started off by reading books on the topic.

I found this great plant life cycle craft at Education.com

Making a garden craft from Education.com

I found these seed and plant 3 part cards free from Montessori Printshop.

Flower Craft

We used the same technique for this flower as we did for our Dolfin Coffee Filter Craft.  I had Xander completely color a coffee filter with washable markers.   Then we got it wet, squeezed it, and let it dry.  Next he glued it to some blue paper and glued on a pipe cleaner stem, leaves and center.  To finish it off, he glued on some green tissue paper grass.

Gardening Sensory Bin

His favorite thing to do with it was fill the carrot with beans.

We got a cute little sunflower kit from our last book order (and saved it for nicer weather).  Xander was so proud to water it and plant the seeds himself.  Sadly, less than an hour after transplanting the sprouts into the garden they had been eaten.

Planting the Garden

Xander "helped" me plant the garden.  He had a great time and got super dirty!  I'm so glad my dad let us invade some of his landscaping so that we can have fresh herbs and tomatoes!

 

Tree of Gratitude Update

A week on plants seems like the perfect time to post an update of our Tree of Gratitude!  I love how full and colorful it is starting to look! Xander has been grateful for some odd things, as well as some very profound ones.  I try hard to let him choose whatever it is he would like to be grateful for, big or small!  You're welcome to check out our other gratitude and kindness related activities on the MAY We Be Grateful Post!

Making different rectangles with square tiles.

Doing an All About Spelling lesson, only using his toes as pointers.  Whatever makes the kid happy!

Fun and Games

Playing Spot It (from Chick-fil-A) and doing some Imaginets.

I found a started set of Zoobs at Target.  He can't snap them together yet, but he can sure direct me to snap them for him.  This was his "sword."

Practical Life

He insisted on vacuuming his room himself.  Who was I to argue?  He was so proud of himself (even if realistically, he didn't do very much of it).