Flutterbies

We started the week off with The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. 

As we read the book, we had a very hungry caterpillar to feed. We passed it around and fed him the foods in the book. 

When we were done, we dramatized the story so that we could discover firsthand, the life cycle of the butterfly. We started out rolled in a ball like an egg.

 We then moved in a circle like caterpillars on our bellies. As we got to each food, we munched it and moved on.

We ended up with a stomachache just like the caterpillar in our book.

Then we ate through a nice green leaf and felt much better. We wrapped ourselves in a blanket (a cocoon) and slept for about 2 weeks.

When we woke up, we had wings! We were beautiful butterflies! We did a little butterfly dance with our wings, to celebrate. 

For a treat, we illustrated the cycle with food- mini marshmallows for the egg, gummi worms for the caterpillar, tootsie rolls for the cocoon and butterfly crackers for of course, the butterfly. 

Since butterflies and caterpillars are insects, we had an Entomology Lab set up in our discovery center. All kinds of insects were available for us to look at up close and personal using magnifying glasses and bug boxes. 

We had real caterpillars to observe. We were able to watch the cycle from caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly.

We watched them as they waited for wings just like in our book, Waiting for Wings...

What an awesome transformation!

We used egg cartons to paint little caterpillars of our own. We added eyes and a nose to give them some character. 

 

One of our favorite art activities is making symmetrical butterflies. We dripped diluted paint onto butterfly shapes, folding them in half and- VIOLA! We had some pretty amazing creations... 

As you can tell by our faces, we were pretty happy with the results!