I love teaching butterflies in the fall. It’s a great way to start our pre-k year as students are also beginning to open up and develop amazing personalities.
Science Table:
The science table is at the focus of this study as that is where the butterflies hang out. Over the years we have used everything from the butterfly tents you can purchase, tomato’s holders covered in mesh, to glass containers with netting on top to hold our butterflies. We use monarch caterpillars that are found on our milkweed in our learning garden. We continue to pick milk weed throughout the unit to feed our caterpillars. If you need more info about setting up a science table in preschool check out this blog post.
My favorite tools for our butterfly unit includes:
- Magnifying glasses. I love these wooden ones as they are easy to hold for young children and they don’t seem to scratch like the hand held ones.
- Window Blocks. You can put any item you like inside, but these are perfect for holding delicate (decreased) butterflies. I have two and they show the wing differences between males and females.
- Plastic Life Cycle pieces: I added plastic life cycle pieces and the kids love to manipulate them more than the cards with the different stages of the life cylce.
Other Areas of our Classroom:
We focus on the life cycle of a butterfly a lot. We do lots of life cycles in prek and this is the first one the children explore. I incorporate the butterfly life cycle into other areas of the classroom.
- For literacy, I use these butterfly writing tray cards for practicing our letters and numbers. For children with sensory issues I will encourage them to use mini erasers to build the letters rather than using their finger.
- We use numeral and alphabet butterfly themed cards for write the room and alphabet sound games.
- For math, I have used number spinners and counted the number of butterflies onto a tens frame. We also use our measurment center and often our mini eraser supply to measure.
- For the sensory table I have used rice and butterflies for children to explore.
Using Science Journals
However, one of my favorite things to use with young students is Science Journals. I encourage children to draw what they see using colors they see. We spend our year talking about how scientists look at shape, color, and details. They draw what they see. As the teacher we take dictations about what they saw. Its often eye opening to see their drawing and thoughts connect. I highly suggest Science Journals for all your science observations.
Time to Release
Releasing the butterflies is my second favorite part of this unit. The joy of the kids faces to see the butterflies take flight for the first time is why I enjoy teaching young children.
Have your raised butterflies in your classroom before?
