- A seasonal round-up (usually toward the beginning of the month)
- Posts where I share what I have been up to with my early elementary children and the preschoolers I work with at our homeschool co-op (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).
Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme. Feel free to link up more than one post.
Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up.
I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).
It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.
We have completely finished our metamorphosis/life cycle lessons in our class at co-op. Three weeks ago I shared the Pattern Caterpillar Crafts, two weeks ago I shared the Symmetrical Butterfly Crafts, and last week I shared the Paper Plate Butterfly Life Cycle we made. I decided to finish up our unit with another lapbook, as I did with the Tadpole/Frog Unit. This lapbook has some of the same elements, but I changed it up a bit.
We again started with a Life Cycle Flip Book. I found the printable images over at Preschool Mom. She has a whole slew of butterfly preschool printables.
The top/title page was a 4x4 inch square, while each page is 1 inch longer than the one before. This is a bit bigger than what I made the Tadpole/Frog life cycle book. I glued the words to the bottom of the page and the children had to put the pictures in order then glue them to the corresponding page.
Let's take a look at that review schedule real quick:
Last week I shared my review of Techie Homeschool Mom.
This week I will be sharing my review for the first two books in the Hamelin Stoop series from 12 Gates Publishing. Later in May you will find reviews for Pathway to Liberty, Elementary Math Games from The Critical Thinking Co., the book God is Better Than Trucks from Christian Focus, another picture book titled Nothing from Worthy Kids, a couple of online subscriptions from EdAlive, plus Supercharged Science.
In June I will share reviews for Simply Classical Writing from Memoria Press and Lightning Lit Grade 2 from Hewitt Homeschooling Resources.
Phew, yes we are still busy with review products.
It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.
We have completely finished our metamorphosis/life cycle lessons in our class at co-op. Three weeks ago I shared the Pattern Caterpillar Crafts, two weeks ago I shared the Symmetrical Butterfly Crafts, and last week I shared the Paper Plate Butterfly Life Cycle we made. I decided to finish up our unit with another lapbook, as I did with the Tadpole/Frog Unit. This lapbook has some of the same elements, but I changed it up a bit.
We again started with a Life Cycle Flip Book. I found the printable images over at Preschool Mom. She has a whole slew of butterfly preschool printables.
The top/title page was a 4x4 inch square, while each page is 1 inch longer than the one before. This is a bit bigger than what I made the Tadpole/Frog life cycle book. I glued the words to the bottom of the page and the children had to put the pictures in order then glue them to the corresponding page.
We then made a comparison book between caterpillars and butterflies. Before making the book we discussed the differences.
I cut out a long rectangle of green construction paper and folded it into thirds. I had the children glue a picture of a butterfly to the "cover."
Then we opened that flap and glued the picture of the caterpillar to the right flap. We then glued on the information about the caterpillar on the left.
The children then opened the book completely, but then folded the left flap in so we could see the butterfly. Then we attached the information about the butterfly to the right flap (which is behind the picture of the caterpillar).
Here is what the book looks like when it is opened all the way.
We then worked on labeling the parts of the butterfly, the same way we did with the frog. We turned the lapbooks over and glued a picture of the butterfly to the back of the lapbook. This printable, from Living Life and Learning, was one that was shared on my Butterfly Metamorphosis/Life Cycle Fun Round Up.
We discussed each part and then the children were given the correct word to glue next to the line leading to that part.
In the Frog lapbook we included a pouch of number puzzles. This time I used a memory game printable from Preschool Mom. Instead of printing out two copies for each child to make a memory game, I gave them each one copy of each butterfly which I had cut in half so they could match the sides. I figured this went well with our lesson on symmetry. I decided to make the storage pouch so they could play the matching game over and over if they so chose.
I stapled the Butterfly Life Cycle book to the left flap. Then the children glued their "Let's Compare" book toward the top of the right flap and the storage pouch toward the bottom of the right flap. We then moved on to some math. I didn't want to do simple counting as we had done for the frog lapbook, where we glued the number of frogs to the lilypads. Instead, I wanted to try some simple addition.
Prior to class I had written the equations in the center of the lapbook. I had the children glue their butterflies under those equations. This butterfly template also came from Preschool Mom as it was easier than me having to draw a bunch of butterflies as I had done for our Symmetrical Butterfly Crafts. There I only needed 8 of each butterfly I made. This time, I needed 40! I just downloaded it, put it in a word processing document, and shrunk it down to the size I needed. Then I printed them out on orange construction paper.
Then we went around and applied the correct number of glue dots (with white school glue) to one butterfly at a time. Then they attached the black circles to the glue. Notice I made sure to make the butterflies symmetrical here too.
As I went around, I made sure to have the children say the equation, "One plus one equals two. Two plus two equals four," etc. When we were all done decorating the butterflies, I handed out the squared which I had written the numbers on. Then the children had to find the correct butterfly to glue these numbers under.
This completed our lapbook.
Butterfly Lapbook
Last week I shared my review of Techie Homeschool Mom.
This week I will be sharing my review for the first two books in the Hamelin Stoop series from 12 Gates Publishing. Later in May you will find reviews for Pathway to Liberty, Elementary Math Games from The Critical Thinking Co., the book God is Better Than Trucks from Christian Focus, another picture book titled Nothing from Worthy Kids, a couple of online subscriptions from EdAlive, plus Supercharged Science.
In June I will share reviews for Simply Classical Writing from Memoria Press and Lightning Lit Grade 2 from Hewitt Homeschooling Resources.
Phew, yes we are still busy with review products.
Here are a couple of things I would like to share with you:
Now onto:
Littles Learning Link Up Features
On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 5 wonderful posts linked up. I will be sharing a randomly selected post and the top clicked on posts.
Please, don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.
This week's randomly selected post is:
Kristen from A Mom's Quest to Teach shared Dice, Decks, and Boards: Koala Capers.
And here are this week's most clicked-on posts:
Nicole from Mama of Many Blessings shared Easy to Make Sun Catcher Kid Craft Idea.
Brandy from The Barefoot Mom shared Dandelion Investigation.
Join the Party!
I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.
Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.
Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.
Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.
Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.
No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button. Just link it to my Littles Learning Link Up permalink please.
I am sharing over at
I am sharing over at
