14 May Learning About Caterpillars and Butterflies

Our caterpillar and butterfly unit study has so far consisted mainly of watching caterpillars turn into butterflies in our Insect Lore Butterfly Garden.  You can follow along with our day to day observations and you can see our release of the butterflies.    We did, however, add on a few activities and some reading to supplement and direct our observations.  Much of my internet research can be found on my Nature Study Pinterest Board, which you are welcome to browse and follow.

Caterpillar and Butterfly Activities

I printed out a “Life Cycle of a Butterfly” chart by Preschool Mom, along with some sequencing cards which I kept by our butterfly garden.  Clark and Luci played with the cards every day, learning the life cycle along with observation.

Luci absolutely LOOOOVES any shadow matching.  She is a complete whiz at it.  So any time I see a version of it, I print it out for her.  (It also will keep her busy for a few valuable minutes while I try to teach Clark!).  I found an adorable insect-themed shadow matching game which she asks to play with almost every day.

This naturally led into playing with her alphabet cards, which she is becoming very proficient in!  We had been working on the sounds of the letters and this week when I said the sounds of the letters, she was able to spell her name!  She was pretty proud of herself!

Clark and Luci discovered a newfound love for coloring, so I was delighted to find some bug-themed coloring pages at 1+1+1=1 and Mama’s Learning Corner.  We now have colored caterpillars on our bedroom doors!  

We also had some fun integrating a graphing activity from 3Dinosaurs.com into an afternoon.  Clark and I took turns rolling the dice and coloring the spaces.  He decided that the first person to color a top square won the game.  He won.  

We also read a ton of bug and butterfly – themed books and visited a butterfly exhibit where we could interact with the butterflies.

Learning about caterpillars and butterflies has been a joy-filled adventure, which I have enjoyed as much as the kids!