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Students will learn to identify the four stages of a butterfly’s life cycle.
Materials:
Materials:
- Butterfly patterns
- spiral pasta-caterpilllar
- shell pasta-chrysalis
- bow tie pasta-butterfly
- small pasta representing an egg
- crayons or markers
- glue
Lesson Plan:
- Ask the students what they know about butterflies. Have they ever seen one? Have they ever touched one? What did it look like? Was it colorful?
- Ask the students if they know what the butterfly was before it was a butterfly?
- What do caterpillars look like? How do you think they got to be caterpillars? What do they feel like? Are they furry? Slimy?
- How does a caterpillar turn into a butterfly?
- Discuss or show a picture of a chrysalis.
- Now put the stages of a butterfly in order.
- The book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle can be used or I have cards depicting each stage of a butterfly.
- We also chanted a few times, egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly I had a few volunteers come up and put the life cycle cards in order.
- Have students create the butterfly life cycle on their own butterfly.
- Have butterfly patterns ready, and you may want to have divided them into 4 sections already.
- Show the students an example before they begin, so they are sure they know what order to go in (left to right)
- Have students decorate butterfly and before they start explain using visuals that butterflies have the same pattern on each side of their body.
- Glue the pasta to the butterfly.
- Write, or have the students write if they are able, the stages of a butterfly under the corresponding piece of pasta.
- Display.
Monarch butterflies are a great way to let students experience the life cycle of a butterfly. They can be ordered at Monarchwatch.org and this activity could be a culminating activity to a unit on the monarch butterflies.
By: Mandy Wallace
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Colorful Caterpillar Cut-and-Paste Art Pattern
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