Book choices for today:

From Caterpillar to Butterfly   Deborah Heiligman
My Oh My – A Butterfly   Tish Rabe
Are You a Butterfly?   Judt Allen
My Life As A Butterfly   Sharlene Alexander
Are You a Dragonfly?   Judy Allen
Dragonflies   Margaret Hall
Life Cycles – Dragonflies   Robin Nelson

Zoology: (first circle)

Need for lesson – Butterfly sequence card set and Butterfly Kit.

Zoology 39
We have learned about some different kinds of insects. Which insect haven’t we talked about yet? Butterflies! A butterfly is an insect. Insects go through metamorphosis. A baby butterfly is a caterpillar. It doesn’t look like a butterfly at all until it grows and becomes an adult after metamorphosis. A female butterfly lays her tiny eggs onto a leaf, stem, or other objects, usually on or near the food that the caterpillar will need to eat after it hatches. Out of the egg hatches a caterpillar. This the larva stage of the butterfly in metamorphosis. Caterpillars often have an interesting pattern of stripes or patches on it. This is the feeding and growth stage of the butterfly. As it eats and grows it will shed its skin four or more times because of its rapidly growing body. The next stage of a butterfly is the pupa stage, when it forms a chrysalis around itself. This is considered the transformation stage because the caterpillar tissues begin to break down and the adult insect body structures are formed. A chrysalis is usually brown or green in color and blend in with its background. When it has changed inside the chrysalis and becomes the adult butterfly, it will emerge from the chrysalis. Its wings are wet and need to dry before it can flutter away. Isn’t this change amazing?
We have some real caterpillars that we are going to watch grow and change into butterflies. We are going to observe the changes taking place each day.

Butterfly Sequence Cards

Butterfly Frames

Observing Caterpillars (Kit from Insectlore.com)

Chrysalis Stage – Inside the Butterfly House

Additional Works:

Parts of a Butterfly
Butterfly Counting 1-10
Butterfly Matching
Butterfly Matching

Parts of a Butterfly

Butterfly Counting 1-10

Butterfly Matching

Butterfly Matching (MontessoriPrintshop.com)

Art:

Caterpillars – Children can paint egg carton pieces with pipe cleaners and wiggly eyes to make caterpillars.

Butterfly Life Cycle – The eggs are lentils, curly pasta for the caterpillar, large shell pasta for the chrysalis, and bow-tie pasta for the butterfly. I used food coloring to the different pastas and made labels that the children glued onto each stage of the butterfly.

Butterfly Sequence

Caterpillars

Butterfly Life Cycle

Butterfly Sequence

Songs/Poems:

The Life of a Butterfly (tune – Skip to My Lou) from kinderkorner.com
I’m a caterpillar, wiggle with me,
I’m a caterpillar, wiggle with me,
I’m a caterpillar, wiggle with me,
What’ll I be my darlin’?
A chrysalis, now sleep like me,
A chrysalis, now sleep like me,
A chrysalis, now sleep like me,
What’ll I be my darlin’?
A butterfly, come fly with me,
A butterfly, come fly with me,
A butterfly, come fly with me,
What’ll I be my darlin’?
Now all together, let’s do all three,
A caterpillar, a chrysalis, a butterfly, three!
Move your body like this with me,
The life of a butterfly my darlin’!

The Caterpillar (from kinderkorner.com)
Fuzzy little caterpillar,
Crawling, crawling on the ground.
Fuzzy little caterpillar,
Nowhere, nowhere to be found.
Though we’ve looked and looked
And hunted everywhere around!
When the little caterpillar
Found his furry coat to tight
Then a snug cocoon he made him
Spun of silk, so soft and light.
Rolled himself away within it—
Slept there day and night