The Very Hungry Caterpillar Lapbook {Weekly Wrap-Up}

We spent some extended time studying "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". Our girls really enjoy the book, so we decided to develop a whole unit study based on it. Here are some of the fun things that we incorporated into this fun lesson!

Our Bible Memory Verse.

The girls really enjoyed reading "From Caterpillar to Butterfly." It is the story of a classroom of students that grow a butterfly in a jar.

Of course, Em LOVED reading the Eric Carle book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."

Both of the big girls love playing with this felt set. Em loves to re-enact the story in the book with the felt pieces. It really is fun for her!

The girls both worked on a lapbook for this lesson as well.

 Our "Very Hungry Caterpillar" Lapbook cover.

 Inside of the girls' lapbook.

And....here is where the REAL fun began:-)!

We ordered a caterpillar kit from Insectlore.com. The girls LOVED, loved, loved this experiment!

On the very first day the tiny caterpillars arrived, the girls started journaling their observations.

As time went on, the hungry little caterpillars became big, fat caterpillars.

More journaling.

Because Em also celebrated her 3rd birthday, we incorporated some fun birthday-related learning activities as well. Here she is doing some numerical, one-to-one corresponding sticker work with cupcakes.

Em is size-sorting gift boxes.

We downloaded a birthday mini-unit from Homeschool Creations. It was a lot of fun for Em!

Em working on her pre-writing skills.

And, the caterpillars just kept growing!

To solidify our lessons, we took a visit to our local Conservatory.
Every year, they have a Butterfly Exhibit. It was perfect timing for our homeschool study!!!
What a blessing:)

Elle got a brochure to identify the various butterflies. She was enthralled in this work!

This was the most enormous butterfly I had ever seen! Just beautiful!

We saw a lot of gorgeous butterflies.

The lifecycle of a butterfly.

Buttferfly puzzle.

 

 Learning the differences between butterflies and moths. 

 

 We had a really nice visit and enjoyed our "Ladies Lunch" at the Conservatory!

Back at home---the girls built a "cocoon" fort. Em is breaking out of her cocoon to become a beautiful butterfly in this picture:).

 Time to transfer the chrysalises to their habitat. Yeah, Daddy got to handle that duty:)

Our first butterfly!! How amazing to witness this transformation!

Getting ready to release our butterflies. Saying goodbye.....it wasn't easy.

I couldn't get really good pictures of them, but we actually had all 5 butterflies grow. I knew we were in trouble when the girls started naming them, lol.

 Here they go!!!

Our sweet, beautiful Elle. She was so sad to see her butterflies fly away!

She said if she were God, she would make a huge butterfly net to go around our house so that they could stay with us forever. Such a sweetie:)

To help her process her emotions, Elle journaled the entire process.

At the end of the picture, she was crying, but next to it she put a picture of herself with a happy face "after Mommy and Daddy helped her feel better." Aw, the joys of homeschooling and parenting:)

Which leads me to another important point. We are now having an indepth discussion in our family about why God made the butterflies experience their life cycle the way He did? I mean, they really do go through a lot. First, they are tiny caterpillars who slither around on their bellies, close to the ground. Then, they work so hard to fatten up, only to get enclosed, squished, and tucked away from the outside world. Once the finally emerge changed, as a beautiful butterfly, they only live about 2 weeks! The spiritual lessons in this are very deep and are leading us to much discussion and personal discovery in the Word of God.

P.S. If you really would like to read a beautiful book about a mother, her daughter and butterflies (it will make you cry), then check out "A Mother's Wish" by Kathy-Jo Wargin. It is a lovely book! I highly recommend it!!

Blessings,

Aria:)