My little one loved doing this activity so much for the life cycle of a frog (and learned quite a bit of new vocabulary!), that we decided to make one for the life cycle of a butterfly too.
We started by creating a sensory bin that resembled the habitat of a butterfly. This included split peas for grass, artificial moss, leaves, and flowers for the bottom part of the bin. Then we added blue shred for the sky. We placed the “life cycle of a butterfly” models in the sensory bin where each would naturally be found – eggs on the leaves, caterpillar eating the leaves, chrysalis hanging from our pretend tree, and butterfly in the sky. Next, we drew 4 boxes on a paper plate with arrows showing the life cycle and we were ready to start!
We spent about 10 minutes just exploring the bin and the life cycle models. We talked about the habitat of the butterfly and used our science tools (magnifying glass and net) to further explore the bin. After this independent exploration, we read our book “National Geographic Readers: Caterpillar to Butterfly” by Laura Marsh. This book is a perfect introduction to nonfiction for preschoolers. It has bright, beautiful photos and the words are simple but informative. National Geographic did a terrific job with this one! If you don’t already have this in your little ones library, I would highly recommend adding it in.
During our second read, we stopped at each phase of the life cycle. We found the model that matched that phase and placed the model in a box on the life cycle plate. My preschooler was fascinated with the transformation! For the rest of the week, she loved looking for caterpillars and butterflies when we took walks outside. It was great to see her make the connections between this text and the world around her.
There are certainly a lot of different ways to change up this activity, but I found that using the life cycle models, paired up with an informative, prereader nonfiction book was an awesome way to get my little one interested in reading nonfiction. I hope it works for your preschooler too!
Little learners today, leaders tomorrow… happy creating!
Want to try this activity out? Just pick up the materials below and have fun!
Are You a New York State Pre-K Teacher?
This lesson aligns with the Next Gen Standards:
- Early Literacy: Reading Text & Literature: Craft & Structure
PKR5: Interact with a variety of genres – NonfictionPKR4: Exhibit an interest in learning new vocabularyPKR9: Make connections between self, text, and world
MATERIALS:
- Black marker
- Paper Plate
- Butterfly Habitat Sensory Bin (blue shred, white beans, artificial leaves, artificial flowers, split peas)
- Plastic bin
- Life Cycle of Butterfly figures
- Magnifying glass/net (optional)
BOOKS: