C is for Carnivorous Plants: Books and Craft

This post is part of the month-long series 31 Days of ABC.  See below for details!

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Since Monkey loves carnivorous plants, it is only fitting that in our house “C” is for carnivorous plants!

He draws them alongside robots, he builds them out of play dough, and he frequently asks us to play a “fly trap” game with him.  This involves making your hands into a Venus fly trap, while his hand becomes a fly you have to capture!  Even Little Monkey can say “fly trap” as he squishes his hands together with appropriately gruesome sound effects.

So we jumped at the chance to take Monkey to the carnivorous plants exhibit at the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco recently.

Monkey was enthralled, getting to see up close the plants he had previously seen only in books and videos.

For this ABC series, I wanted to tie carnivorous plants more directly to the alphabet, so I came up with a fun little letter craft, based on one of the ways that many carnivorous plants trap their victims.

Many carnivorous plants, like the sundew, catch insects when the unsuspecting bugs land on the plants’ sticky surface.  So, in their honor, we put together our own sticky “C’s” to catch some insects.

First I cut “C” shapes out of colored paper then laid each on top of contact paper, so that the sticky side of the contact paper showed through the “C.”

I cut up a few bug shapes to get them started then let them add more, to practice their scissor skills.  The boys had fun seeing the “insects” stick to the letter, usually with Monkey adding in some dramatic cries from the insects.

Since Monkey also knows Spanish, we talked about how the carn- in carnivorous is like carne (“meat”), since carnivorous plants eat meat.

For More on Carnivorous Plants

In case you missed it, be sure to check out our fun carnivorous plant food creations.

The Monkeys really enjoy this video from BBC One.  It is very well done, and so much better than watching home videos on YouTube of guys feeding spiders to their Venus fly traps.  (Yes, we’ve watched those as well, though I wouldn’t recommend them!)

Although this says it is for older readers, Hungry Plants by Mary Batten really keeps Monkey’s attention.  It explains the plants in text that is very readable without being watered down.

Carnivorous Plants by Cynthia Overbeck is much more dense, but Monkey still loves it.  It covers a wide range of plants not found in some other books.

This last one I only just discovered as I was putting together this post, so we haven’t read it yet but definitely will soon!  Elizabite: Adventures of a Carnivorous Plant by H.A. Rey looks just delightful, and a fun book to read alongside the more scientific ones.

This year I am proud to once again be hosting the collaborative series 31 Days of ABC.  Each day throughout the month a different blogger will share alphabet learning activities and resources.  Be sure to check out the full schedule, and link up your own alphabet posts below!