Littles Learning Link Up: April 9, 2019: Pattern Caterpillar Crafts

Each month you will find:

• 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 are still in the middle of our metamorphosis/life cycle lessons in our class at co-op. We finished our Tadpole/Frog lessons, and we have moved on to Caterpillar/Butterfly lessons.

During our first week, we focused on Caterpillars and Patterns.

I read these two books to the children:

Ten Little Caterpillars by Bill Martin Jr. and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

The first book was read at the beginning of class, and the illustrations of the caterpillars really helped with our discussion about patterns. The second book was read toward the end of class when we were making our pattern caterpillar snack.

Now, onto this week's crafts!

Pattern Caterpillar Books

Here's what you will need:

Acrylic paint in various colors

Card stock cut into 3 pieces for the pages

Bottle caps (I used the size that goes on my water bottle)

Paper Plate

Permanent marker

We made three different pattern caterpillars for the books. The children were asked to choose two colors which would be used for each page. We put some of each color on a paper plate for them, and they got two bottle caps. That way they didn't mix the colors.

Though the colors were the same for each of their caterpillars, the patterns were not. I led them through making three different patterns.

ABABAB

ABBABB

and

AABBAA

I demonstrated on my own page, encouraging them to use either their first or second color, and as we got further into the caterpillar, asking them if they could figure out which color to use next.

Once we had three pages finished, we set them aside to dry.

Later on, they used the permanent markers to draw on faces.

Here are their almost finished books. I just had to staple the books together for the children to take home.

Our second craft that day was this cute little 

Pompom Pattern Caterpillar:

Here is what you will need:

Craft sticks (one per child)

Brown acrylic paint

Paint brush

Q-tip tips

Pompoms

Wiggle eyes

White glue

Scissors

In preparation for this craft I cut the tips off of the Q-tips.

While the caterpillars for the Pattern Caterpillar Books were drying, the children painted their craft sticks brown.

These were also set aside to dry while the children went to snack and gym. When they came back they worked on finishing these two crafts, we also sang some songs, made a caterpillar counting book, and had a pattern caterpillar snack. I will be sharing the extra activities in my Learning About Life Cycles: Caterpillar/Butterfly Lessons post in a couple of weeks.

To finish the pompom caterpillars the children were asked to pick three colors of pompoms. They were given two of each color and asked to make a pattern out of them. Then we applied glue to the craft stick and the children attached the pompoms in the order they wanted.

Some did a ABCABC pattern, while others preferred AABBCC.

We then put a couple of dots of glue on the first pompom and the children attached the eyes. Then we put some glue between the first and second pompom for the children to stick the Q-tip tips into for antennae. 

Unfortunately it gets quite hectic toward the end of class, and I didn't have a chance to take pictures of the finished caterpillars. 

Let's take a look at that review schedule real quick:

A couple of weeks ago I shared my review for Poetry for the Grammar Stage from Memoria Press.

This month I will be sharing reviews of CrossWired Science and Techie Homeschool Mom. 

In May I will share my review for the first two books in the Hamelin Stoop series from 12 Gates Publishing, 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, plus a couple of online subscriptions from EdAlive.

Phew, yes we are busy with review products again.

Here are a couple of things I would like to share with you:

Learning About Life Cycles: Tadpole/Frog Lessons

Springtime Fairy Round Up

Focusing on the Cross With 15 Jesus-Centered Books for Resurrection Sunday

Focusing on Jesus Resurrection Day Round Up

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 9 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 Crafts: Paper Bag Goat Puppet.

And here are this week's most clicked-on posts:

Gale from Imaginative Homeschool shared CRAFT: Spring Flowers Sun-Catcher.

Brandy from The Barefoot Mom shared The Butterfly Lifecycle

Brandy from The Barefoot Mom also shared Spring Bucket List.

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.

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter