Butterflies & Caterpillars

Butterfly Felt Pieces

Butterflies Felt Set These vivid felt butterflies let your imagination soar as you discover their lifecycles. 20 pieces. Ages Pre-K-Grade 2.

Books &eBook from Teacher Created Resources

Butterflies Thematic Unit Butterflies provides lesson plans and cross-curricular activities based on the following pieces of literature: The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Where Butterflies Grow. This reproducible resource is filled with ready-to-use lessons and cross-curricular activities. Also included are management ideas, creative suggestions for the classroom, and a bibliography.

Butterfly Motivational Jumbo Stickers 90 self-adhesive stickers per pack. Each sticker is approximately 1-3/8" x 1". Teacher Created Resources stickers are acid-free per industry standards. Contact us for technical information.

Moths & Butterflies Stickers 120 Self-Adhesive stickers per pack. Each sticker is approximately 1 inch square. Teacher Created Resources stickers are acid-free. (Per Industry Standards; contact us for technical information.)

Butterfly Pasta
Cook bow tie (butterfly) noodles.  
You can add some flavored gelatin to the boiling water or food coloring.
Another option is to have some flavored gelatin prepared.  Place some cooked bow tie one a small plate.  Have the child paint with a pastry brush his/her butterflies.

Cook one of my noodle recipes located at: main dishes or dairy-free main dishes recipes.

Butterfly Sandwich
Make a sandwich.  Cut it into two or four triangles (depending how old the child is or how much money you want to spend if you are a teacher).  Place the pointy ends facing each other.  Add one pretzel (or something else) for the smaller sized sandwich and two pretzels (or something else) for the larger sandwich.

Butterfly Biscuit
Use a circle cookie or biscuit cutter.  Use one of these recipes: Biscuits or Dairy-free Biscuits.  Cut it into fourths and place on the pan.  Bake.  After they are baked, place it on a plate, place the pointy ends facing each other and a pretzel stick (licorice, etc.) in the middle of the wings.

Hot Dog Butterfly Biscuit
Use a circle cookie or biscuit cutter.  Use one of these recipes: Biscuits or Dairy-free Biscuits.  Cut it into fourths and place on the pan.  Place the pointy ends facing each other.   Place some water on the pointy ends and push them together.  Cut a hot dog (frank) in half.  Place it in between the butterfly wings. Bake according to the biscuit directions.

Sugar Cookie Butterfly #1
Sugar Cookies or Dairy-free Sugar Cookies
Use a butterfly cookie cutter and bake according to the directions. When they are cool, frost them.  Decorate how you would like using chocolate chips, colored candy or cereal, etc.

Sugar Cookie Butterfly #2
Use a circle cookie.  Use the sugar cookie recipe for the butterfly.  Cut it into fourths and place on the pan.  Bake.  When they are cool, frost them (or place colored sugar sprinkles on the cookie dough).  Decorate your butterfly how you would like using chocolate chips, colored candy or cereal, etc.  Place the pointy ends facing each other.  Place licorice, etc. in the middle of the wings.

Symmetrical Butterfly Craft
Using a butterfly pattern, decorate your own symmetrical butterfly.

Butterfly Pasta Craft
Have some uncooked colored bow ties.  (Use my colored pasta craft recipe.)  Have the child make a pattern by gluing them onto a piece of paper.  (The child does not have to make a pattern, just glue it on.)

Rhymes
Butterfly, butterfly Rhyme

Art Fun Twists Butterfly
Butterflies of the Pine Barrens Pictures of butterflies Monarch Butterfly, Black Swallow tail butterfly, & others at the different stages.
Christine's Wacky Art Ideas for Insects
Disney.com - Playhouse - Out Of The Box (Caterpillar) Sing Along
Miss Curtis and Miss Janssen's Butterfly Web Page
Teachers.Net: Butterfly Search Results Mother's Day Butterfly & a Poem, Art Activites, Insects Ideas, and Much More.
The Butterfly Website and Caterpillar to Butterfly Article
Where Do Butterflies Come From? (and animated stages of the butterfly)

Math
O. Orkin Insect Zoo: Butterflies--Lines of Symmetry & Pattern Worksheet
Thinking Foundation: Symmetry - Patterns in Nature - Butterflies (A Butterfly Pattern & More) It has a balancing butterfly using a penny taped on the back of each butterfly wing.

Music
Preschooleducation.com  (Click on "Music & Songs" and then "Bugs"). Have the children use the craft or coloring page as they sing the song.

Monarch Butterfly
Coloring Book Monarch (butterfly)
At LearningPage.com you need to become a member.  Sign in by clicking on "Become a Member" and then go to "Theme Sheets" and then "Insects".  Monarch Butterfly Cutout
Monarch Butterfly Pattern

Caterpillar

If you would like to find other books, go to: The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

DVD

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Story Bag or Ideas
The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Spanish:  La Oruga Muy Hambrienta) by Eric Carle

Here are some ideas you can make to place in a bag.  If you are a teacher, you can have your students make their own story bag.

1.  Very Hungry Caterpillar: Felt Board Fun (or Puppets) @ DLTK

2.  For Parents, Teachers, and Students:
Very Hungry Caterpillar: Story Sequencing I colored them and then laminated them.

3. Use green felt or paper to make a leaf.  Sew or glue a white pom-pom on it to depict a caterpillar's egg.
Another option: Go to PrimaryGames Egg on a leaf Coloring Page.

4. Printout Activities
Bry-Back Manor: Butterflies - Circles Cut the life cyles of the butterfly circles out and glue them onto the butterfly.
Learning Horizons: (Watch a butterfly grow.) (pdf) Cut and paste the stages in order onto the cube.
Munchinland: Caterpillar Worksheet
Cut out the objects that begin with the letter "C" and paste them on the caterpillar.
More activities and coloring pages listed further done on this page.

5.  Caterpillar Activity:
Sew green pom-poms together using thread to make a caterpillar.  You can make a face using a fine tipped felt pen or leave the face off.
Have the child place the caterpillar into the cocoon (a brown sock or other color if you don’t have a brown sock or just a small lunch bag).
Have the child take a butterfly out of the sock (or bag).

6.  Butterfly Activity
For Parents, Teachers, and Students:
Butterfly Coming Out of The Pupa (Chrysalis)
A monarch butterfly pupa is green but you can make your "pupa" any color.

Make a butterfly * or copy the pattern found at Thinking Foundation *.  Cut it out on poster board or heavy paper.  Hole punch a hole in the top middle part of the butterfly. Place a 6 inch piece of pipe cleaner in the hole (if using a pattern without an antenna) and turn the edges to form a circle.  Have each child decorate the butterfly how they want (make sure each side looks like the other side).  Take a toilet paper tube to form a pupa (chrysalis).  Decorate it.  Tape the butterfly onto a craft stick.  Curl the wings of the butterfly inside of the pupa (chrysalis) and take it out of the pupa (chrysalis) and let the butterfly fly.  Play some soft instrumental music and let the child fly the butterfly while the music plays.

* You can make the butterfly wings by folding a small piece of paper in half, and draw half a butterfly along the fold line. You can add the antennas when you cut it out.
* In a instruction page of their web site, this is a balancing butterfly (using a penny taped on the back of each butterfly wing).

7. Fingerplay
Caterpillar
 There was a little caterpillar crawling all about.
 He worked and he worked without a doubt.
 (Index finger wiggling)
 Wrapping himself in a snug cocoon.
 Waiting and waiting, will it be soon?
 (Cover index finger with other hand.)
 Look, he's coming out, my oh my!
 For now he's become a beautiful butterfly.
 (Cross thumbs and let fingers be fingers be butterfly wings.)

Found at: Finger Plays 3: Caterpillar @ Maw Maw Lynn's

8. Art
Egg Carton Caterpillar
Have a row of 6 cardboard egg carton cups cut out already.  Have them cut the sides out to form legs (cut them out for younger children).  Have the child paint the egg carton using green tempera paint or other type of paint.  Make a face out of paper or paint it if you like, like the caterpillar in the book, "Very Hungry Caterpillar" or how ever the child wants the caterpillar to look like.  Glue it on the dried caterpillar.

Fingerprint Caterpillar
Have the child put his/her thumb or a finger into green (or other colors) paint.  Place it on paper.  Make eyes, nose, and a mouth with a cotton swap.  You can make it like the cover of Eric Carle's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar or how ever the child wants the caterpillar to look like.

9.  The Very Hungry Caterpillar Snacks (Home Economics)
Make or eat some of the foods in the book.
I would suggest the healthy, inexpensive food items. You can cut some of these foods into small pieces for each child to sample: apples, pears, plums, strawberries, orange, watermelon, or cheese.  If you also want an entire snack, make one of the following: chocolate cake, cherry pie, or cupcakes.  (You can use one of my chocolate cake recipes, cherry pie, or make cupcakes using any of my cake recipes.  Go to: Desserts or Dairy-free Desserts for the recipes.

Other Ideas
Talk about the different life cycles to become a Monarch Butterfly or a Painted Lady Butterfly.

Go to Zoom Butterflies - Enchanted Learning and find facts, activities, and printouts (butterflies and caterpillars) for all ages of children.

Birds and Caterpillars at frugal-mom.com
Bry-Back Manor: Help the Caterpillar Become a Butterfly Maze
Butterfly Coloring Pages at PrimaryGames.com
Including different stages of a caterpillar.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Unit (K-3) @ Teaching Heart Lessons, links, printables, and ideas.
Thinking Foundation: A Caterpillar Pattern

Butterflies
Carrie Bruner's Thematic Unit: Eric Carle & The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Caterpillars and Butterflies Unit: (including activities, songs, and more)
The purpose of this unit is to enhance the comprehension of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and to learn the life stages of the butterfly.
Caterpillar to Butterfly Week *2care4kids.com*
Has activities for a week that include poems and activities for different books.
Children's Butterfly Site Coloring Page of Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle
DLTK-Kids: The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Lots of activities and crafts for children ages 2 and up: coloring pages, and more fun.
Eric Carle Bulletin Board - Very Hungry Caterpillar
KinderArt: Egg Carton Caterpillar - Art and Language (Ages 4-7)
KinderArt: Very Hungry Caterpillar - Art and Language (Ages 4-7)
KinderArt: Caterpillar Tissue Paper Collage - Art and Language Arts (Ages 4-6)
Insects (including The Very Hungry Caterpillar)
Some of these I have listed above since they are great.
Lesson Exchange: Monarch Butterflies (Elementary, Science)
Story Sack @ about.com
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Food Items (Pictures)
unit lit nots [v5.0]