"Butterfly
Activities"
The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle's home page)
Create tissue paper designs like the end pages
of the books (the designs inside the front and back covers). Or make butterflies
- cut construction paper shape of the butterfly and its wings and let the
kids fill in with colorful tissue paper. Snack suggestion: serve the same
fruit the caterpillar eats in the story - one each day of the week.
Science
Raising a Butterfly
Have the Children search for caterpillars and put ithem in a terrarium, canning jar, 1 gallon sized bottle etc.
Give the Butterfly milkweed to eat! Let the kids observe with magnifying glass.
Let it actually crawl on the hands of those willing.
Eventually the butterfly will eat its fill and make a crystallis.
If you can catch that in action it is really cool.
To see this spectacular site click on the flying Butterfly.
hint: (from the Animal Planet Channel, Nature Nut Show) Put a damp folded peice of Paper towel into the jar so the caterpillar will have something to drink. Change it daily or it will mold.
Arts and Craft Activities for Butterflies and Caterpillars
Egg Carton Caterpillars
Cut the egg cartons in half down the center and have the children paint the egg cartons with paint or you can use markers or crayons. Take pipe cleaners and make antennas and legs, use fabric scraps or construction papers to make faces.
Ink blot butterflies:
Cut construction paper into butterfly shapes, have children spoon different colors on paint onto butterfly, fold in half and press together, open up - beautiful! I use pastel colors.
Tissue Paper Butterflies
Cut butterfly shapes from white construction paper. Set out assorted colors of 1-inch tissue paper squares, small containers of water and paintbrushes. Have the children paint the butterfly shapes with water and place the tissue paper squares randomly on the shapes. Have them count to ten, then remove the wet tissue paper to view their colorful creations.
Clothespin Butterflies
Cut various colors of tissue paper into 12-inch squares. Set out slot-type clothespins, colored pipe cleaners and assorted felt-tip markers. Have the children pinch their tissue squares together in the middle and then insert the tissue into the slots of their clothespins to make wings. Have them wind pipe cleaners around the heads of their clothespins, leaving two small ends sticking up to form antennae. Let the children use felt-tip markers to color on eyes and to draw designs on the clothespin bodies of their butterflies. Then tie the butterflies to lengths of fishing line or string and hang them from the ceiling or in a window.
Ink Blot Butterflies
Spread newspapers on a table. Set out tempera paints in individual containers with an eyedropper in each. Let the children use the eyedroppers to drop paint onto pieces of drawing paper and help them fold the papers in half. Have the children press and smooth their papers, then unfold them to reveal the designs they have made. When the paint has dried, cut the papers into butterfly shapes.
Sandwich Butterflies
Make sandwiches and cut them into triangles. For each child place a pickle wedge in the center of a plate for a butterfly body. Then place a triangular sandwich on either side of the pickle for wings.
Caterpillars
cut out circles of colored construction paper. paste circles together side by side slightly overlapping. Add legs and feelers from pipe cleaners...draw on a face.
Pompom Caterpillars
Glue three middle size pom poms together. paste on eyes and feelers. for fun you can put magnetic tape on back for magnet.
Wax paper butterflies
Shave crayons and place between a sheet of wax paper on news paper. cover with another piece of wax paper. press iron for a few seconds, cut into butterfly shape.
Poems
Fuzzy wuzzy caterpillar
Fuzzy wuzzy caterpillar in the garden creeps
He
spins himself a blanket and soon falls fast asleep.
Fuzzy wuzzy caterpillar
wakes up by and by
To find he has wings of beauty, changed to a butterfly.
Pretty little Butterfly
Pretty little butterfly, what do you do all day ? I fly around the flowerpots nothin' to do but play. Nothin' to do but play. darlin', nothin' to do but play. So fly butterfly, fly butterfly don't waste you time away.
MUSIC
Pretty Butterfly (Sung to "Up on the Housetop")
First comes a butterfly Who lays an egg,
Out comes a caterpillar With many
legs,
Oh, see the caterpillar Spin and spin.
A little chrysalis to sleep
in.
Oh, oh, oh, look and see,
Oh, oh, oh, look and see.
Out of the chrysalis,
my oh, my,
Out comes a pretty butterfly!
Butterfly song same tune as the elephant
song
One but-ter-fly went out to play
>on a daf-fodi-il o-ne day
She had such de-light-ful fun
She in-vi-ted an-oth-er but-ter-fly to come
Continue with 2, 3, 4, and....
Five but-ter-flies went out to play
On a daf-fo-di-il o-ne day
They had such de-light-ful fun
That they played in the sun till the day was done!
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