It's Planting Season!

I just love this time of the year when everything is blooming and summer is right around the corner.  In kindergarten, we've been learning all about the life cycles of plants and insects.  We've always planted using soil and clear cups.  This year we decided to be a little bit more creative!  So, we made very hairy caterpillars.  Here are the materials we used:

• Planting soil
• knee high nylons (10 pack from Target)
• girls hair rubber bands - 2 per child
• 1 package of grass seed
• googly eyes & tooth picks
• pom poms 
• pipe cleaners
• funnel made from a cup - cut the bottom part off

First, we mixed the soil and grass seed in a big bucket.  Then, we had kids scoop the soil into their nylons making them pretty fat.

Then, one of the kindergarten teachers helped tie the rubber bands around the body.  We made 3 parts, so we needed 2 rubber bands per child.  We tied the caterpillars and trimmed any extra nylon hanging off.

 

Next, we placed all of the caterpillars in the bucket and soaked them in water for about 30 minutes.  

 

After about 30 minutes we took them out and place them in plastic bags overnight.  The next morning, we pulled them out and put the antennae and eyes in.  This was a little messy because they were still wet.  But, we were really excited to get them finished and placed in the front of the school for everyone to see!   I actually hot glued all the pom poms onto the antennae.  It was a lot of work, but well worth it!  I also hot glued all of the googly eyes onto tooth picks so they could just stick in the body.  We tied the antennae around the neck and carefully place in the garden.

 

 

And of course I had to make cute signs for our caterpillar garden, which you can find {here} if you are interested in doing this project with your kiddos!   

We also did some close reading activities with the kids.  We read each passage and found the important information and illustrated in our reading journals.  They did a great job!  You can find both passages {here}.

Buzz on over to my {TPT} store for more great learning activities.  Happy spring!