Butterfly Book Pair

I love to pair a nonfiction and fiction book together for book studies and exploration with kids. When children begin to learn real life facts about their world, I have found the level of engagement to sky rocket.


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The two books I have chosen today are perfect together.

Who doesn't love Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar?

If the beautiful illustrations don't instantly catch your eye, then the simplicity of the text surely must. I think kids can relate to the concept of eating maybe a little more than they should have and the pattern of the days of the week are predictable. Older children will begin to guess which day is coming next before the page is even turned. The suspenseful waiting to see if you are correct is enough to keep the children engaged until the last line of text is read.

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Are You a Butterfly is a wonderful twist on nonfiction. The life cycle is presented in a fun conversational tone. (Just an Example- not actual text: Are you a butterfly? If your mother lays an egg on a leaf, then you definitely could be a butterfly.) The conclusion of the book and all books in this series always ends with ... If you look like this or this or this, then you are a human child.

I absolutely adore both of these books.

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The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle


Suggested Activities

1.Retelling Using a Felt Board or Puppets: DLTK

2.Sequence the Story: DLTK- Place the picture cards in order and tell what happened in the story.

3.Retelling Hat: To turn the retelling pictures into a hat, staple several strips of 3-4" wide construction paper together. Measure your child's head to ensure it will fit. Lay the long strip flat and allow your child to glue the pictures in order onto the strip. Allow glue to dry and staple the strip to fit your child's head. Children absolutely love to wear these.

4.Caterpillar Kabobs: Cut small chunks of the various foods that were in the story. Have your child push them onto a bamboo skewer in the correct order. Be sure that the child counts out the correct number of each food item.

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Are You A Butterfly? by Judy Allen and Tudor Humphries

1.Random Butterfly Craft Ideas: DLTK

2.Random Caterpillar Craft Ideas: DLTK

3.Colorful Name Caterpillars: Cut several circles out of construction paper. Have your child use a black marker to draw a face onto one of the circles. Glue pipe cleaners or skinny rectangles of construction paper to the "head" of the caterpillar as antenna. Have your child write one letter of his or her name on each circle. Use a pencil and have your child trace the letters with a marker if needed. After each letter has been written, allow your child to practice assembling the letters in order to spell his/her name. You can either place the circles in a baggie for your child to use again. OR Have your child glue the circles in order over lapping slightly to have a caterpillar friend to play with.

4.Caterpillar Counting: Follow the above directions except put numbers on the circles. Depending on the age of the child you could even consider skip counting.

Butterfly Activities

I did two really fun activities with my kinder kiddos that I forgot to post. Better late than never is my motto. If not, I would probably start to wonder why I seem to keep always running behind.

Butterfly Life Cycle:
1. Fold a small piece of construction paper in half like a hot dog. Cut four even space slits in the top half of the paper. Cut until you reach the folds. This will make a flip flap book.

2. Label each flap with one of the stages of the butterfly life cycle: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly.

    

3. Either pre-cut the pieces for your child if they are little or allow your child to cut out the pieces independently if you feel they are ready.

You will need the following:

•three green leaves

•one small teeny-tiny yellow circle for the egg

•one 1 inch piece of pipe cleaner bent to look like a caterpillar

•a piece of brown or green crumbled paper to make the chrysalis

•one green stem

•one colored flower cut from construction paper

•two squares of tissue paper.

4. Use the posted pictures as a guide for where everything goes and how it should look. To make the butterfly, lay the two pieces of tissue paper one on top of the other one. Then, twist the tissue paper gently in the middle. TA-DA! You have a simply, beautiful butterfly. Being a kindergarten teacher I always like to add a reading/writing component to my crafts. Older kids can begin to sound out the words for each sentence and record them under the appropriate flap.

For example: The butterfly lays an egg. a caterpillar hatches out of the egg. A beginning writer would probably record this: VBLUG AKHTVVG. That is perfect for a beginning writer. I have the children point to the words and read them back to me. I record the sentence correctly under the child's writing and have them practice reading correct writing while pointing to the words.

For a younger child, I would write the sentences and read them to the child while pointing to each word as it is read. I might have the child point to the words if appropriate. When ready your child will automatically, begin to take the lead and point and read the words to you.

 

    

Symmetrical Butterfly Painting:

1. Make a tracer or cut out a caterpillar shape on the fold of a sheet of white construction paper. If you are making a tracer, show your child how to place a "holding hand" on the tracer and use a pencil to go around the outline.

Remember to place the caterpillar on the fold. This will allow the caterpillar to open up into a butterfly once it is cut.

2. If your child traced the caterpillar outline, have him/her cut it out. Remind them... Thumbs Up to Cut. Your thumb must face up and your hand should point away from your body. you hold the paper close to you and turn it as you cut. The scissors will not turn that much.

3. After the caterpillar is cut out, have your child decorate one side with crayons or markers to look like a caterpillar. I glued google eyes on ours just to make it more fun.

4. Open up the caterpillar into a butterfly. Allow your child to drizzle paint onto one side of the butterfly.

5. Have your child gently fold the non-painted side over and press into the paint from the wet side.

6. You will want to gently open the butterfly back up and allow it to dry. Once the butterfly is dry talk about how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly and about the symmetry created from pressing the two sides together.

Here is a list of some of my favorite butterfly books. This is not a completed list by any means.

If I could only buy one for pre-school, it would be Charlie the Caterpillar. For younger kids, it would be The Crunching, Munching Caterpillar.

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Favorite Butterfly Books:

• Charlie the Caterpillar
• Clara Caterpillar
• Are You a Butterfly
• The Crunching, Munching Caterpillar
• Waiting for Wings
• Butterfly House