Bugs! Duck Pond Lesson Plan 4/13/20-4/19/20

Duck Pond Lesson Plan Bugs

Week: 4/13/20-4/17/20--Bugs

Group Activities	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Story Time Goal: For students to communicate through language	Happy Bee	10  Little Lady Bugs	When Cricket Grows Up!	The  Very Hungry Caterpillar	Little Cricket’s Song Book
Circle & Song Time Goal: For students to develop their literacy, numeracy and social skills through daily activities	Bumble Bee Song	Song: The Ants Go Marching	Song: 1-2-3 Little Bees	Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider	Song:  Mr. Golden Sun
Sensory Time Goal: For students to develop fine motor skills	Cool Plastic Bugs!	Looking  For Bugs Outside!	Bugs & Dough	Magnet Fun!	Big Blocks
Art Time Goal: For students to develop hand eye coordination	Papercraft Bumble Bee	Lady Bug Painted Paper Plate (Small or  Large)	Bug Dough Imprinting	Paper Plate Dotted/Paint Butterfly	Love Bugs
Gross Motor Time Goal: For Students to develop their muscles through movement	Playground Indoor  Recess	Playground Indoor Recess	Playground/ Indoor Recess	Playground/ Indoor Recess	Playground/ Indoor Recess

This week’s lesson plan is “All About Bugs”! Yes, that’s right--BUGS! You won’t have to touch any insects if you don’t want to! On your walks around the neighborhood or nature hiking walks, look around. Insects are emerging from their winter hibernation. Take a look in the air (lots of bees!). Take a look on the ground (ants, roly polys, etc.). You can collect them using a bug box or just an old jar/plastic container. If you have a magnifing glass, have your student examine these creatures! Have super fun this week! 

Monday--Paper Craft Bumble Bee: This is a great fine motor skill/tactile sensory gluing project! You will need a yellow piece of paper/card stock cut into an oval. Don’t have yellow paper? Have your student color that paper yellow! Get some scrap white paper/newspaper/coffee filter and cut it into a heart ⅓ to 1/2 the size of your yellow oval. Cut a few black paper strips that fit at various places on the bee including the antennae.  If you have googly eyes, great! If not, use a marker to dot some in! Have your student glue (glue stick is the easiest!) the various parts to the bee. (Remember: Some students are good at this and some aren’t at this age. It’s ok. Just show/help them!). This image is just one way/guideline on how your student may create their bee. The project doesn’t have to look like this. Most toddlers will glue everything in one place on the bee. Totally, normal. (We just call those Picaso Bees!!!)

Tuesday--Painted Lady Bug Plate: You will need a large/small paper plate or white paper/cardstock circle. Red/Orange washable paint. 4-6 black small paper circles, medium half moon shape, two small antennae. Glue stick. Have your toddler paint the back of the paper plate using hands or a brush with the color of their choice. Let plate dry. Add black paper enhancements. 

Wednesday--Bug Dough Imprinting: If you don’t have playdough or model magic, you can make your own salt dough! (Various recipes are available online.) I use plastic toy insects for this project. If you don’t have them, I don’t recommend using real insects!!!  Go dig in your old Halloween gear and see if you can’t find a plastic spider! If this isn’t available, use various items in nature (rocks, pine straw, pine cones, leaves, blades of grass, etc). This project gets those little hand muscles working and strong. It’s another great tactile sensory project. Most toddlers love to squish, pinch, roll, smash the dough! Flatten dough. Push the object into dough. Let dough dry overnight. Salt dough may take two days to dry. Bonus: lightly paint the dough! Also, older siblings love this project too!

Thursday--Paper Plate Butterfly: Yes, I love paper plate projects! It keeps little minds and hands on an art project!. You will need a large paper plate/paper circle. Cut some paper into an oval or butterfly body. Choose to paint or color the circle. Once dried, Cut the circle in half but use a wavey line! (The large circle is the butterfly’s wings) Now, invert/flip circle pieces. I usually glue gun or staple these pieces together. Have your student color the butterfly body. Have your student glue (gluestick) the body and place it on the butterfly. Bonus: Fun fine motor coordination skill, add stickers to butterfly wings!

Friday--Love Bugs: Have your student color/paint/dot/sticker any color paper. Scrap newspaper or grocery advertisements work well also! Once decorated, cut paper into a heart shape. Glue a dark color small circle for the bug’s head. Add some paper antennae & eyes.

 

As a reminder, your student’s art project will be a messy version of these projects! Our goals with art is to work on fine motor & hand-eye motor control and not to create perfect works of art! Do what you can with any of these projects. Read any books on bugs if you don’t have any of our reading selections. Use YouTube, Netfix, etc to find audio/video children book selections as part of your bug adventure. Somewhere on one of these sites, there's a Eric Carle video story version of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"! Again, go outside! Look in the air! Look on the ground! Listen for buzzing sounds! Have super buggy fun this week! We miss everyone so much especially doing art projects! Stay healthy & safe!

Love, Ms. Ann & Ms. Ampy