Butterfly Unit

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Home : 2008 : March : 30

Butterfly Unit
By ABC

We love butterflies as well! It's one of our favorite units. We usually order the painted lady larvae from insect lore which are very easy to do. I agree with the pp, using The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a great book.
We even make our own stories using a different insect such as the Very Hungry Bee, etc. In our stories, the insect eats and eats and then gets too big to do something such as fly or it gets stuck in a hole. Then at the end, it decides to eat better foods.

Other activities we do are:

We compare with a Venn diagram moths vs. butterflies.
Make insects out of clay because

a butterfly is an insect with 3 body parts.
Make the life cycle of the butterfly. (monarch) Cut out 2 leaves from green construction paper. On the first leaf glue rice which represents the eggs, on the second glue circles together to show the caterpillar. For the 3rd stage take wax paper and make a little pouch, stuff with some black/orange paper or tissue paper to show the chrysalis, finally get a picture of a butterfly to color. Hole punch each end of the 4 pieces and tie together with yarn.
We talk about symmetry since the wings are symmetrical. To do a quick activity with this concept, take a piece of construction paper and have the kids fold in half the hamburger way (the "fat" way). Open the paper flat again. Then you go around and put a little bit of paint in the middle fold. Have the kids fold the paper together and smooth down a few times. When they open it, they will have a symmetrical design.I hope your kids enjoy! Good luck!:)