Dr. Seuss week

Last week, June 1-6, we kicked off summer with Dr. Seuss week. TV watching had gotten a little out of control and I wanted to get refocused and start the summer right. So, no TV except The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That in the afternoon (and a couple mornings before we got up). We also read a different Dr. Seuss book every day and had a snack and activity that went along with the book of the day. It was so fun. They looked forward to it every day and by the end of the week didn't seem to mind not watching much TV. So, here's what we did:

Monday

Oh The Thinks You Can Think

Schlopp with a cherry on top (applesauce colored with food coloring with an m&m on top)

"I can think about me" book (a little construction paper book with drawings of their favorite things)

Tuesday

The Cat in the Hat

Cat's hat kabobs (strawberries and bananas sliced and stuck on toothpicks)

Wednesday

Dr. Seuss' ABC book

B is for bubbles

D is for doughnuts

S is for sipping soda pop

Thursday

Green Eggs and Ham

Green pancakes

Rhyming words matching eggs

Friday

One Fish Two Fish

Colored goldfish with a color matching worksheet 

(And a cute baby foot that got in the picture)

Hand cutout fish

Saturday 

There's a Wocket in my Pocket

Scavenger hunt around the house (I copied pages of the book and had them hunt for all the crazy creatures around the house)

Yottle in a bottle 

Butterflies!

So, raising butterflies was awesome. The kids really enjoyed it. I may have enjoyed it even more. It was amazing seeing the chrysalides and getting to hold butterflies. 

Here's May 11 while they were just forming their chrysalides. This was the hardest stage because they weren't doing anything and the kids couldn't stand not messing with them. BTW, one caterpillar didn't make it. No idea what happened. He just never grew. So we had 4 at this stage. 

May 13 we moved them to the habitat. It was still very slow and boring for a while. 

May 18, the first butterfly hatched. We were all so excited. They were ready to take him outside almost immediately but we kept him to watch for a while. 

The other three hatched the next day. We kept them about a week and then let them go. The one laying on the bottom in the above picture didn't ever fly well. One wing dried bent. He was pretty cool though because he was easy to hold. The kids really enjoyed having that one. This was quite an experience. We may do it again one day when I can incorporate it into school.