Butterflies

Butterflies are insects. They have two pairs of wings and two antennae. Like all insects, they have three pairs of legs and three body parts-the head, thorax and abdomen. There are thousands of different kinds of butterflies. Butterflies drink nectar from flowers with their probiscus (this is like a long skinny tongue that they roll out to use).

Butterflies and moths belong to the same insect family. Most butterflies are bright colored; most moths are dull in color. Butterfly antennae have a knob at the tips; moth antennae are either featherlike or plain. Butterflies fly mostly in the day; moths mostly fly at night. Butterflies form a chrysalis; moths make a cocoon.

Social Studies Connection

Show students on a map the migration patterns of butterflies. Monarch butterflies migrate south to Mexico in the fall and migrate north again in the spring.

1.Teach students how butterflies use their probiscus to drink nectar.

Use a hole punch to make a hole in the center of a flower shape. Tape the flower shape to the top of a small Dixie cup filled with sweet juice. You can also tape on leaves to the side of the little cup. Insert a straw. Tell the children that the straw is their probiscus and they are sucking up the nectar.

2.Teach students the life cycle of the butterfly with pasta and popsicle sticks.

Glue the following pieces of pasta on to a popsicle stick in this order:

ouzo-butterfly egg
spiral-caterpillar
shell-chrysalis
bowtie-butterfly

3. Teach children that a butterfly's coloring helps to protect it from being eaten. The bright colors of a butterfly help it to hide amongst the flowers. Some butterflies even have markings on their wings that look like eyes to fake out predators.

Have students color butterflies in assorted colors and have some students add eyes to the wing markings. Collect the students' pictures. Later, hide the butterflies around the room so that the butterflies blend in with your decor. Challenge the children to find their butterfly.

Giggles
author unknown

Is a caterpillar ticklish?
Well, it is my belief-
That he giggles as he wiggles
Across a hairy leaf.

Caterpillar
by Victoria Smith

Fuzzy, wuzzy, creepy, crawly,
Caterpillar funny.
You will be a butterfly
When the days are sunny.

First Comes
by Victoria Smith
(Up on the Housetop)

First comes a butterfly that lays an egg,
Out comes a caterpillar with many legs.
Oh, see the caterpillar spin and spin,
A little chrysalis to sleep in.
Oh, oh, oh, wait and see,
Oh, oh, oh, wait and see,
Out of the chrysalis
My oh my!
Out comes a beautiful butterfly!

Insect Bodies
By Victoria Smith
(If You’re Happy and You Know It)

Every insect’s body has three parts.
Yes, every insect’s body has three parts.
Every insect has a head,
A thorax and abdomen.
Every insect’s body has three parts.

Every insect’s body has six legs.
Yes, every insect’s body has six legs.
They have three legs on each side,
And they walk on them with pride.
Every insect’s body has six legs.

Caterpillar

Divide egg cartons into sections of three. Paint. Glue on wiggly eyes. Staple on pipe cleaners for antennae.

Butterfly

Take a small white paper plate and fold it in half vertically. Cut a triangle shape on each side at the top along the straight fold. When you open the plate –you now have wings. See photo below.

Draw an oval body with a round head. Make copies. Children color and add face. Students color and then glue the butterfly body in the center of the butterfly “wings”. Students can make antennae out of small strips of construction paper that they twirl around a pencil.

Give students a large white butterfly shape. Have students dribble paint on the right wing. Then have students fold the left wing on to the right and press lightly. When the wings are open you have a great example of symmetry. See photo.

Click here for a worksheet to review numbers to 100. Simply call out numbers and have students color them in according to the pattern you choose.

Brainstorm a list of words to describe butterflies such as colorful, bright, orange, beautiful, exciting,etc. Give students a sheet of paper which has the sentence fragment below. Students fill in the blank with the words from the brainstormed list. Students create a watercolor painting to accompany their poetry.

Butterflies are ________.

Butterflies are________.

Poem Art

Students watercolor a blue sky on a piece of paper. After the paper is dry, students use their pinky to create a butterfly. They dip their finger into orange or yellow paint and press two times side by side on to the piece of paper to create wings. Repeat this many times all over the paper to create a swarm of butterflies. Let dry. Next students add the butterfly's body with a paintbrush by simply painting a brown vertical line between each pair of wings. After the artwork is dry, glue on the poem at the bottom. See photo.

You can often buy butterfly kits at science and nature stores. You can also order them by calling 1-800-LIVE BUG, or write to Insect Lore at P.O. Box 1535, Shafter, CA 93263 or visit their web site at www.insectlore.com.

When you buy this kit you will receive a coupon to send away for caterpillars. You will receive the caterpillars in the mail. The caterpillars are contained in a plastic jar with their green food already inside. The caterpillars are tiny at first but quickly grow. The caterpillars will crawl to the top of the jar, attach themselves to the paper disc on the lid and spin their chrysalis. Then you take off the paper disc and tape it to the cardboard butterfly house that comes with the kit. Wait for the butterflies to emerge.

Resources

Read Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Watch the video The Magic School Bus: Butterfly and the Bog Beast. Save this video for the end of the unit so that children will understand it better. These videos are usually a free rental at your local library. Other books to read are Caterpillars Can't Fly by Linda Allen and Squiggly Wiggly's Surprise by Arnold Shapiro.