Butterflies

Butterflies are another sign of summer to me. Hazel and I have been seeing quite a few and learning about them as well. Between our adventures at Mass Audubon (in and out of scheduled programs) and just in our yard, we have been seeing them everywhere! This summer Hazel has learned to recognize a monarch butterfly and has learned to say monarch. Oh, and I saw the Butterfly Lifecycle pieces at Michaels as well as the frog one we looked at with our program! We have also found a few books to help us learn about them.

The first is The Butterfly by Anna Milbourne and Cathy Shimmen. We bought this one at the zoo. It goes through the life of a butterfly from caterpillar to butterfly's eggs hatching. The pictures are nice and colorful.

The second is What's the Difference Between a Butterfly and a Moth? by Robin Koontz. I saw this book on Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational awhile ago and looked for it at the library. I have always wondered how you could tell the difference.

The third is A Butterfly Is Patient by Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long. This book goes into great detail about what characteristics a butterfly must have for its life cycle as well well labeled illustrations of the different species at all stages.

The fourth is my favorite. It is See How They Grow Butterfly photographed by Kim Taylor. This book starts with a photograph of an egg and its mother and takes you through every stage from hatching to pictures with exactly how many weeks it is old. The pictures are amazing!! I definitely recommend this one if you want to learn/teach more about the life cycle.

Today we did some butterfly crafts. First we borrowed an idea from One Artsy Mama and made beaded butterflies by putting beads on pipe cleaners. (I should add that she posted this the other day which is why I say she inspired it. Looking at my pins I see I had a similar one pinned and the original source is indietutes.) Now I did this from memory this morning and thought about using clothespins, but we didn't. We did it with pipe cleaners and beads. This probably made it easier, but not as great for use.

Next we took the idea from  Creative Play For Your Toddler: Steiner Waldorf Expertise and Toy Projects for 2-4s by Christopher Clouder and Janni Nicol. We used three squares of tissue paper and a pipe cleaner. We added on a wooden bead for the head. The book suggested making a mobile. We have not done that yet, but Hazel is enjoying playing with them.

Some of the other crafts I have done from this book can be found here and here.

We also did a similar one using tulle and a pipe cleaner.

The last thing I would like to share is a gift Hazel picked out for me awhile ago at Drumlin Farm Gift Shop.  (My birthday was this week, so I got to open them this week.)

We will be doing more butterfly crafts as well as dragonflies! Stay tuned!

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Pond, Nature, Teddy Bear Picnic and Museum

We had a very busy day today. We had our Nature Adventures with Picture Books at the Mass Audubon Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary this morning. It is hard to believe there is only one more of them this summer. This week's theme was ponds! She read us a book about a walk around a pond and seeing animals and signs of animals. Then she showed us pictures of the animals we may see and off we went. Since it was hot and sunny when we started out, our instructor chose the pond in the Rockery, so we would be in the shade for the most part. Along the way we saw many dragonflies and damselflies. I did not take any pictures of them this week since we had so many last week. There were many steps to make the hill easier to get down and up, however one of the moms had her youngest in a stroller so she required some help getting back up.

We stopped along the way to look at scat (at least that is the official term for it--in house it is poop) and discuss which animals may have left it. She also pointed out a beaver boundary mound. Then we saw the water and the water lilies. We also saw a frog, but my pictures did not come out well of it. We saw a blue heron but we saw it when it was flying away from us.

Then we went over a bridge and our instructor took some water samples for us to explore. The first find was a snail. Then we found a baby dragonfly. It was hard to believe this ugly water bug turns into the beautiful dragonflies we were seeing everywhere.

We also found some baby damselflies. It was hard to believe how different they look from the baby dragonflies when they look so much alike as adults. (To tell the difference, damselflies land with their wings folded and dragonflies land with them open.)

Then we found an even smaller baby damselfly!! This was my find, so I'm proud!

Here are all of our finds or at least the ones we could get to stay in something. Several of the waterbugs took off on us when we put them into the ice cube tray. Apparently the whirliwig bugs or whatever they are have wings.

Then she showed us a rana slyvatica (a wooden frog that you rub with a wooden stick to make frog sounds). The kids all tried it out.

She also showed us models of the stages of a frog's life. The kids got to hold each one.

On the way back up the hill, I went with the kids who were walking to get them to stop every once in awhile to wait for the other adults who were helping with the stroller. At one point we stopped and the kids pointed out an animal down the road. The deer was kind enough to wait until everyone joined us and got a good look at it before running off.

After getting back to the nature center I realized we needed to get going so we could meet Hazel's friend at the Wenham Museum for a Teddy Bear Picnic. We got there late. Hazel went over to our friends while I went in to check in and pay for us. It was a little chaotic and the kids did not stay focused too well. I did get some pictures of Hazel doing the Teddy bear, teddy bear dance.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Touch the Ground.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Show Your Shoes.

Then they pretended to be bears with one child the mama bear to lead them in their behavior. Then Hazel wanted to go inside. The museum is on a main street/state highway so it was loud. They had read some books while the kids ate their lunches and had coloring sheets, but it was too large of a group and too spread out to keep them all focused with the noise from the road. So we took our teddy bears and picnic stuff back to the car and went inside to the museum.

I had only been to the museum once before. I know they have some old house as part of the museum with certain times to tour it, but we have not done that part. The rest of the museum is very kid friendly. It has toys, exhibits of life in the U.S. during the 17th-19th century and clothes for them to try on, toys that can be played with and then their are the dollhouses, dolls, and the trains with the buttons you can push to get them all moving. Needless to say the kids had a lot of fun. I did not bring my camera inside thinking a museum doesn't allow pictures to be taken. Our friend however did and sent me some.

Hazel is wearing a dress fashioned after the 19th century and a 17th century style bonnet. Downstairs where the model trains are there is also an interactive room for the kids to play. It includes a large model train engine you can sit in.

First they sold tickets since other kids were on the train.

Then Hazel loved pulling the suitcase around.

Then they got in the train. After this we each went our own way. Hazel was obsessed with a model house they could play in. She put Ducky to sleep in the bed and then took a basket to go to the market or churned butter. It was really cute!!

Overall a wonderful busy day!! We are going to plan a teddy bear picnic for the near future and invite a few friends.

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Fireflies Part 3 & More Summer Fun

Now for our third and final installment of firefly crafts at least for this summer. If you missed the first two you can check them out here: Part 1 and Part 2. For part 3 we were inspired by Tippytoe Crafts. We had a huge thunderstorm so I couldn't go check them out before we started so we did them a bit from memory. And we made a few changes. First Hazel painted the ends of spoons with glow-in-the-dark paint.

 
 After letting the paint dry, I cut out shapes from black construction paper. Had I looked at Tippytoe Crafts I would have realized it would be easier to do several shapes, but I did not. We glued them onto the spoons and then added googly eyes and pipe cleaner antennae. On some we added six pipe cleaner legs as well.

Next we used a glow stick. I found glow stick necklaces that are thicker and just have a top with a string attached. I thought these would be perfect since I didn't like the glow coming through the materials on Part 2. We basically did the same thing but glued the black construction paper onto the glow stick. We let the glue dry longer before adding everything else since the glow stick is heavier and bigger. We added legs and eyes and antennae and then hung it in Hazel's house/Horsey's shed depending on what she wants to use it for (today it was a school and a restaurant as well). 

Our final ones are similar to Tippytoe Crafts first ones. However Hazel was not too interested in crafting at this point so we did not use the tissue paper to make the tails. I used a coffee filter and her yellow and green dot markers. Glued that to the black paper and cut out the shape.

We have been having a few hot days here in New England. Well today wasn't but the previous few have been. To cool off we decided to make some popsicles. This is the first year that Hazel has really liked a popsicle, but she seems to love them, so I figured we would make some with less sugar. I had bought popsicle molds previously and just never used them. 

Our first attempt was just simply watermelon. We put some watermelon pieces in the food processor. Hazel pureed them and then I put them in a measuring cup so she could pour it into the molds.

 Then we put them in the freezer. Hazel could not wait to try them, but she had to wait until the next morning. Yes, I let her have a popsicle this morning. I figured I would feed her watermelon in the morning and these popsicles are just frozen watermelon. She enjoyed it, but did not eat it all.

 The second flavor we tried was with fresh blueberries, fresh strawberries and plain, non-fat Greek yogurt. Sorry I didn't get many pictures of these, but Hazel and our babysitter enjoyed them this afternoon. Again Hazel did not eat it all, but her eating was very off today. To make them we put some blueberries, cut strawberries and yogurt into the food processor. Hazel pureed them and then I put them in the measuring cup so she could pour them into the mold. Then they went into the freezer.

Since this mold only made two, I ate the leftover yogurt mixture. Our babysitter said the popsicle was really good. So these are our new summer treats without all the added sugar. Such a fun way to keep cool!


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Fireflies Part 2

Did you check out our firefly paintings and the books we have been reading last week? As promised here are some more firefly crafts that we have been trying. This time we used some glow sticks to give our fireflies their light.

The first was inspired by somewhere on-line, but I cannot seem to find where again. I thought it was Family Fun Magazine, but I cannot seem to find it again. Anyway, you need a plastic Easter egg and a glow stick, some construction paper and googly eyes or marker and pipe cleaners if you want antennae and legs.

Put the glow stick inside the egg and then glue the construction paper wings on and eyes and pipe cleaners (we skipped this part). Let them dry and then play with them or hang them for a nighttime scene inside.

We also tried this with toilet paper rolls and construction paper. We put a glow stick inside and then put orange paper over the head end and yellow over the tail end then covered the roll in orange. We added white and orange wings and drew on a face.

I apologize now for my camera. It does not do well with the glow in the dark pictures or any nighttime pictures. 

Finally, our last inspiration was from Lorie at Reading Confetti. Using glow sticks to make fireflies or butterflies. Ours looks more like a butterfly.

 


We have a few more ideas to try with fireflies and then we are going to move onto butterflies. Of course, yesterday's story time got me thinking more and more about butterflies and bugs! I want to try a few ideas from Betsy over at Tippytoe Crafts. I always love her ideas!!




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Fireflies Part 1

Source

Summertime always reminds me of fireflies. I have fond memories of catching fireflies in jars and using them as a nightlight in our pop-up camper at sleepover parties. Of course when I woke up early the next morning I was very afraid of the ugly bug in the jar. We use to have sleepovers in our camper in our backyard in the summer. 

 I wanted to share this with Hazel.  Since she does not stay up when it is dark we read some books and did some crafts.

We took some books out of the library. First is Fireflies! by Julie Brinckloe. This is a great story of a child going out with the neighborhood kids to catch fireflies and realizing as the light changes color that the firefly needs to be free.

Next is Living Lights: Fireflies in Your Backyard by Nancy Loewen. This book gives interesting facts about fireflies and their general life cycle including what they eat, how they are born, etc.

The third book is Go, Critter, Go! Flash, Firefly, Flash! by Dana Meachen Rau. This is another  book about fireflies and is written for the very young. 

Another great book is The Little Squeegy Bug by Bill Martin, Jr. We did not take this book out this time, but have in the past. We love this book. It is a story of how the firefly got its light.





Next we went and got some glow in the dark fluorescent yellow paint. We started by painting dots on black paper. Or should I say I did. Hazel had other ideas.
 

My painting

Hazel's painting

Next we tried to paint fireflies on the black paper using the yellow for just the tail.

My Painting

Hazel's Painting

 Stay tune to see more firefly projects!


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Going Exploring for Ant Hills

Last week Hazel and I bought a critter cage that came with a small net, magnifying glass and tweezers and we bought a nicer magnifying glass at Michaels. They were on sale an not very expensive. Hazel has been afraid of bugs for some time so I thought it might help to get rid of some of the fear. On Sunday we pulled them out. Hazel started by gathering rocks in her net and critter cage. Then after a bit she told me she wanted to go exploring and look for ant hills. I'm not sure if she really knew what an ant hill is or what one looks like, but we did find some.

Our front yard actually had many of them. We always seem to have ants around. Hazel had the best time just looking and searching.

We discovered the magnifying glass that came with the critter cage was not very good. It was rather blurry. So Hazel kept telling me she would share the good one with me. She was having so much fun.

Getting a better look

We also of course continued using our senses like we did on Saturday. After all exploring really requires one to use your senses. We found some feathers, bees (but they moved too fast to get a picture). Hazel took the first feather to put in her critter cage. I'm not sure it ended up there though.

Hazel also noticed that an airplane left lines in the sky.

Then we went for a walk to explore some more. Daddy joined us and Hazel wanted to be pushed. But she constantly wanted us to find something to put in her net. I finally picked up a rock for her. Steve had been doing some yard work and we moved her sand box out of the garage now that the weather is turning warmer. She was very excited to have it outside. She was serving everyone dinner at her swingset picnic table.

She asked if I was hungry and of course I said yes, so she gave me the best one.

I am loving our days spent outdoors. Each day seems to bring some new adventure, exploration or game. What have you been up to outside?

Oh, I know I have mentioned this book previously, but I am trying to relate our activities to books whenever possible. Since we were exploring for ant hills, it of course makes sense that we mention one of Hazel's favorite books, Ant and Grasshopper by Luli Grey. If you visit my previous post  you will see one of the crafts we have come up with to go with the book. I still plan to make Ant's house out of tissue boxes with Hazel. Stay tuned for it.

Some other creative play we have done lately:

Blowing Bubbles

Wind Wand--finally playing with it outside!!

Stove/oven for cooking with her sand table

Yes, she told me she was grilling chicken on her table!! I love it!!


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