Discovery Class

Today was the boys first day at Wee Discovery. The theme of the class today was bugs. First the whole class sat on the rug and the teacher (Ms. Theresa) dumped out some plastic containers of animals, bugs and dinosaurs. Then she talked about bugs and how they had six legs, antennas and did not have ears. Then she instructed the students to pick out bugs from the pile she made earlier. Jaxon dove right in, examining all the different species, but didn't put any to the side. Wyatt just kinda grabbed whatever didn't have four legs, but took things like eels, trees and spiders. Lucas was a bit shy again, and just preferred to stay on my lap. Until I realized that if I was doing one on one, I wouldn't just allow my kid to sit there while everyone else participated. I think I was just happy they were under control that I was forgetting to get them involved. Then I whispered to Luke to go find some bugs, and off he went.

After the bug finding, we had a measuring project, with a worksheet. It was horrible, the kids didn't care and wouldn't focus (especially since there was a cute baby crawling under our little table) and luckily that project only lasted about 5 minutes until we moved on.

Next came the craft project. It entailed folding a black piece of paper in half and cutting out half a butterfly, then cutting out the insides of the wings, then gluing (which I have never done with the boys yet!) tissue paper down on the yellow paper, finally to be covered by the black outline of the butterfly that was cut out earlier. Then cut the whole butterfly off the yellow paper. Needless to say, I was a scissor cutting fool. I cut those dang butterflies out in record time while praying the boys didn't actually get the glue bottles open but didn't have the heart to take the bottles away because what else would keep them busy while I am cutting and being thankful they didn't want to help cut too.

I improvised a bit on the project and just poured glue all over the yellow paper, smeared it with my hands and laid down the black butterfly out lines. Then the boys could finally participate and put the tissue paper where they wanted it to go. While I could finally take a breath.

Next step was to cut out the butterfly off the yellow paper. Then take the boys back to the supply table to pick out googly eyes and which ever color pipe cleaner they wanted. I punched the hole for the antennae and once we were back to the table, they put the pipe cleaner in the hole for the antenna. Next I dotted glue for the eyes and had them lay the googly eyes on the glue spots. They did a pretty good job!

After our craft project, we all gathered around the rug again as Ms. Theresa passed around preserved bugs in boxes and bottles for the kids to observe. Lucas really like this part and would try to peer in and check the bugs out, Jaxon liked the jars with the magnifying lids and Wyatt was more interested in that same baby that was crawling around not too far from us.

Last, the bugs got put away and all the students got a sticker. We gathered our little butterfly project and we were done for the day!

Honestly, for the first time in a long time, maybe ever, I felt completely overwhelmed. Luckily the boys were really good (I think, or I was too busy cutting to notice) and were pretty quiet. I do feel like they didn't get as much out of the activity as the other kids did, but I know they still learned more than they would have, had we just stayed home. With the finished butterflies, is a copy of the worksheet we used and the butterfly outline, so if we wanted to do something of the sort here at home, not rushed, we could try that again as well.

Luckily, next week is not an art project. Ms Theresa says it is all hands on activities next week. Whew!

Wait, is that a good thing?