Using the book "Going Batty" from the Magic School Bus series as inspiration, we spent a week in October having fun studying bats. We began our week by reading the book and then making some bats of our own.
I gave each of the kids a sheet of black construction paper and asked them to fold it in half.
Next I asked them to begin tearing their paper however they liked but not the folded side.
Here are the somewhat unique bats we created using this simple technique :)
Since we learned bats like to eat bugs I decided to let Jackson practice identifying numbers as well as developing his one to one correlation skills by using the bat he made along with our bug manipulatives for the week. I would give him a number and he chose the bugs his bat wanted to eat.
As you can see Jackson thought this math was lots of fun!
He especially loved feeding his bat spiders.
Another day we used sponge painting for some more bat art
The kids all thought the sponges were so much fun. It cracks me up what they find amusing sometimes... lol :) Seeing these smiles makes me realize I need to find another project involving sponge painting for them. :)
They each chose a couple of colors of paint which I gave them on a plate and they began to sponge away. There was a bit of confusion about whether they were sponging the black sheet of paper (yes) or the bat (ended up being a cool by-product), but once they (specifically Reagan) got it figured out the project turned out pretty well.
By sponging around the bat image you end up with the black silhouette of the bat.
We decided we liked our colorful bats that were sponge painted in the process nearly as well as the intended art project. :)
One of the primary things we learned regarding bats is how they use their ears for echo location. To experience echo location for ourselves we played a game where everyone had the opportunity to use their ears to locate the "bugs" in the room. We created a makeshift bat costume for the kids to try out while pretending to be a bat. By blindfolding them they had to use their ears to find the rest of us "bugs" who were busy making noise with maracas and bells. Missy Reagan volunteered to be our first "Batgirl."
This hiding place of Missy K's was the best. Reagan could not figure out where this meal was located. lol :)
My own little "Batman"
The Missy K "Batgirl"
Among other books, we especially enjoyed this interactive book Grammy gave us some years ago on bats. The book is titled "Misunderstood BATS" by Child's Play.
This was such a fun unit study to do, especially during the month of October. :) I also have to say "The Magic School Bus" series provides such great inspiration for getting going on so many science related subjects. That and a little searching for activities on Pinterest and I find I'm on my way and having nearly as good a time planning as the kids are learning and playing! :)
