Cycle of a Butterfly

Daily Question: Do you know what a chrysalis is? Before it becomes a butterfly, a caterpillar goes through a growth stage during which it is called a "chrysalis." On the surface it may not look like much is happening, but the delicate chrysalis process changes the fuzzy caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly with wings of intricate designs and intense colors.


This is our Class Cocoon. It was made by a fat caterpillar just before preschool began this year. We are hopeful a butterfly will emerge.


This morning we learned about watercolor painting and painted our very own butterfly craft (with coffee filter wings, clothes pins, puff balls, chenille wire, and googly eyes). When I held up a filter that had been painted, Hugh gasped and said, " Oh my. My butterfly is beautiful!"

Water colored coffee filters become our butterfly wings.

Assembling our butterfly parts.

[We decided to add the puff balls to the butterfly body and googly eyes for personality. I was reading a book about moths and butterflies afterwards and learned that typically moths have fluffy bodies and antennae and butterflies have thin bodies and separate wings. Oh well. It was fun to make our crafts!]
We had fun being Butterflies by running, whirling, and dancing to Janeen Brady's song,"See Me Run."

Eva with her Halloween Cat shirt and our Halloween cat, Boo.

Outside the children had fun riding the airplane to Colorado and then Connecticut and playing a "c" game--finding a crazy cat, a cute little baby, some stormy clouds (that causes turbulence on board the teeter totter plane) and some rockets...those (imaginary)rockets are scary and make the flight a lot more fun.


We had fun listening to I Love Bugs while we ate our circle crackers and graham crackers for snack time. Snacks included round and square graham crackers. Another day we ate Shark fruit snacks and pretzels (Nathan pointed out our pretzels are shaped like butterflies)


We read some great books about the Cycle of a Butterfly and then heard a story about C the Caterpillar who cuts leave and chews them to gain strength to build a cocoon and become a butterfly. The children make a cutting action with their fingers and say "c c c" (cah, cah, cah.)
Susie is showing a Bug Math Game which has students match bugs with colors and learn patterns.

Butterfly Books:
Caterpillar Spring, Butterfly Summer by Susan Hood, Claudine Gevry, & Mara Van Fleet
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Butterfly Express; A Book About Life Cycles (Child's Word. Magic Castle Readers)
The Bug Book by Dr. Hugh Danks
Know-It-Alls: Butterflies by Darlene Freeman and Mike Maydak
How to Hide a Butterfly by Ruth Heller
I Wonder Where Butterflies Go In Winter, and Other Neat Facts About Insects (Golden Book)
A Child's First Library of Learning, Insect World (Time Life)
I Love Bugs by Philemon Sturges (audio book)
Butterfly & Moth (Eyewitness Books) by Paul Whalley
Percival the Plain Little Caterpillar by Helen Brawley (Bright pictures and foil cut outs).