 |
| The Very Hungry Caterpillar Books we made for Butterfly Week. |
LANGUAGE ARTS
We made Hungry Caterpillar books in my classroom. They turned out so cute. The kids were pretty good about drawing items for the caterpillar to eat around the holes I had punched in their little books.
 |
| Butterfly Activities and The Very Hungry Caterpillar Fun. |
We read the Eric Carle book The Very Hungry Caterpillar first. Then we talked about all the things we could have OUR OWN caterpillar eat. We made a big list on the white board of our brainstorm. Then I drew a little picture next to each of the words so the kids could read, write it, and copy the easy picture to color.
Then we went to work on our books. They had already been previously made up by ME the day before. Then I punched out all the holes. You could also have a mom helper do it but it is kind of complicated. I’ve just found it easier to do it myself.
 |
| After we drew and colored what the Very Hungry Caterpillar ate, we glued one on each page. They were so tiny and cute! |
Luckily Bennett had the stuffed animal of the caterpillar from Kohls. I had left mine at home. So he brought it in so we could use it as a visual aid. Fun! A cute Dot to Dot Butterfly art is HERE at Activity Village.
 |
| Stuffed Very Hungry Caterpillar puppet. |
Then we did a bunch of Caterpillar and Butterfly activities. Here are a few.
A cute VOCABULARY list with cute visuals you can print out is HERE. It was a great center activity for the pocket chart and some HAND pointers too. A roll and cover game was HERE at TPT.
 |
| Last year at recess I passed out these “find a bug” jars and kids LOVED them. They fought over doing this activity for 2 weeks. In never got old. This is science at its best. Little scientists observing nature. |
A cute SONG to sing about Caterpillars is here.
POETRY or MUSIC (Sing to the tune of Itsy Bitsy Spider)
A little, green caterpillar crawling on a leaf,
Spun a little chrysalis, and fell fast asleep.
While she was sleeping, She dreamed that she could fly.
And later when she woke up, she was a BUTTERFLY!
MATH:
Graphing- What is your favorite bug? Butterflies? Honeybees? Grasshoppers?Dragonfly? Ladybugs? These were our top 5 we voted on. Guess which one was the winner?
 |
| We do a weekly graph where I ask the kids a question and they vote from 5 choices. |
 |
| Here is our “What is Your Favorite Insect” Vote. It looks like dragonflies won. |
|
|
We also did an estimation jar with plastic Dollar Store insects inside. That is always a fun math activity.
SCIENCE
Do a life cycle of a butterfly. A link for a black line page of the 4 stages of a Butterfly can be found Here at Digital Pencil.org. They have lots of games, a podcast and another video of a butterfly pupa stage. You can also buy the butterfly larva at Carolina Biological Supply for about $15.00. The link is Here for Carolina Biological Supply. I usually don’t send away for them until Springtime. A cute wheel life cycle is HERE on TPT. You can get the butterfly garden below from EAI Education for $15 bucks.
 |
| Butterfly Garden is a great science Activity and it usually comes with a certificate for free Butterfly Larva. This is how I ordered mine the first time. I’ve put butterfly, praying mantis and ladybug larva in here before. Once the praying mantis got out through a hold overnight and they were all over the kids’ desks in the morning. It was funny. Buy it HERE at Insect Lore for about $15 bucks. |
P.E. “Bug Garden”. Have students sit in chairs in a big circle. This game is like FRUIT BASKET. One student is in the middle without a chair. I’m usually the first one as I have to teach the game. Go around the circle of chairs and give students names;1 ladybug, 2 dragonfly, 3 butterfly, 4 honeybee. Then start over going around till all are named.
Then tell the caller to call out an insect name. (bees) All the bees must jump up and fly to another chair. Everyone else stays sitting and just watches. It is FUN to watch, believe me! Nobody who was a bee can stay in the same chair. The caller grabs one of the chairs and sits during the commotion. The one who is leftover with no chair is the new caller. Then one fun part of the game is if the caller says “Fly Away Bugs!” then all the bugs get up and trade places. Last one to find a seat is the new caller! I do this for a Halloween party, a Valentine or Christmas party too. Just name the kids theme names for the holiday (skeleton, ghost, bat, witch for Halloween, and for Christmas; stars, candy canes, ornaments, trees, etc.
We had a great time doing Butterfly Week!
|
