TITLE: CATERPILLARS TO BUTTERFLIES
AUTHOR: Elaine Wilson, Anchorage, Alaska
GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT: Kindergarten. The activity involves
language, science, math, and art - it is a cross-curriculum
project. This unit encompasses four learning modalities:
language, visual, auditory, and fine motor.
OVERVIEW: This unit involves setting up a science activity
that allows students to observe the development of a caterpillar
into a butterfly.
PURPOSE: The purpose is to give children an appreciation of
nature by teaching them about the life cycle of the butterfly.
OBJECTIVES: My objectives are:
1. to develop language
2. to learn sequencing skills
3. to learn graphing and other math skills
4. to experience art in a different light
5. to learn about balance in nature, using the life cycle of
the butterfly as an example
6. to compare and contrast butterflies and moths
RESOURCES/MATERIALS: I ordered my butterfly kit from:
Insect Lore Products, Inc., P.O.Box 1535, Shafer, California 93263
Our district has these films: Butterfly, Caterpillars Grow and
Change, Bugs and Butterflies
Book list: The Life Cycle of the Painted Lady Butterfly, by Barbara Murray
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle
A Moth is Born, Rand McNally Publishers
Now I Know...A Butterfly, by Troll
Amazing World of Butterflies and Moths, by Louis Sabin and Jean Helmer
Mysteries and Marvels of Insect Life, by Dr. Jennifer Owen
The Life Cycle of the Butterfly, By Paula Hogan
Hope for the Flowers, by Trina Paulus
ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES: I first ordered a butterfly kit. The kit
contained caterpillars in a small plastic cup with food, a garden box
to view the butterflies, and the rest of the supplies needed. In
coming years I will order just a replacement larva kit of caterpillars
and food.
Start the month of May with a calendar of the days written on
butterflies of different colors. Follow a pattern according to color.
Read to the students from list above.
Compare different kinds of butterflies, monarch, red admiral, tiger
swallowtail, common sulphur, and painted lady. Color each of these kinds.
Do a graphing lesson on a favorite kind of butterfly.
Learn the difference between butterflies and moths.
Estimate the number of days from the caterpillar to chrysalis stage.
Estimate the number of days from the chrysalis to butterfly stage. Learn
and label the six parts of a butterfly.
Do a sequencing lesson on the life cycle of a butterfly beginning with
eggs on a leaf, caterpillar stage, pupa or chrysalis stage to adult
butterfly.
Observe the growth of the caterpillar in the cup. As the caterpillar
got bigger, it was easier to see the segments of the caterpillar. We
tried to distinguish all 12 segments. Make a paper caterpillar,
including the 12 segments plus the head and tail.
Make a construction paper caterpillar which opens up to be a butterfly.
After making these, learn the poem:
Caterpillar
Fuzzy, wuzzy, creepy crawly
Caterpillar funny
You will be a butterfly
When the days are sunny.
Wiggling, flinging, dancing, springing
Butterfly so yellow,
You were once a caterpillar,
Wriggly, wiggly, fellow.
by Lillian Vabada
Learn The Caterpillar poem by Christina G. Rossetti.
Make caterpillar books. They could be in the shape of a caterpillar.
Students use their knowledge to write a story of what happens to a
caterpillar from the caterpillar's point of view.
As the chrysalis starts to turn black and transparent, predict which
of the chrysalis will become a butterfly first.
Students observe the chrysalis and butterflies. They help feed the
butterflies with sugar water. We also added real flowers in our
flower garden box.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER: When the unit was completed, we reflected back
to the very beginning and remembered what the caterpillars looked like
and what they developed into. We talked about the changes, and how
this happens every year, year after year. We then sang a special
goodby song to our butterflies that we sang together as a class daily.
We then released the butterflies to their natural habitat.
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