Transition Song: The Circle Song by the Kiboomers
Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: caterpillar, butterfly, molting, metamorphosis, chrysalis, proboscis, antennae, wings, small/big, bigger, same/different, fast/slow, patterns, circles, change, fly,
We've been watching our caterpillars change into butterflies during the past few weeks in Miss Jeana's and Miss Kazia's classroom. So Miss Carrie brought out a book that talks about caterpillars to butterflies titled From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman and Bari Weissman.
It even had a preschool class who noticed during snack time that the butterfly was emerging from the chrysalis. (Note from Miss Carrie: Once a child has experienced an activity, reading a book about that activity is often more engaging because the child has real word experience from which to draw. )
Then Miss Carrie showed video clips of caterpillars and butterflies (Video Touch-Bugs is the name of the app). We watched different kinds of caterpillars. Some caterpillars had patterns (yellow-black-yellow-black). Some had spikes or fuzz. One caterpillar had a red head with black spots that looked like a lot of eyes. We saw one caterpillar molt it's skin to form a chrysalis. Then a butterfly emerged from the chrysalis. We watched the wings that were shriveled up and wet, straighten out and dry. Then we watched video clips of butterflies. Some were orange and black. Some had circles on their wings that looked like eyes. We watched a butterfly's proboscis curl up and straighten out. They use the proboscis like a straw to drink nectar out of the flowers. We watched a butterfly drink nectar and wondered why their wings kept moving so fast.
Last, Miss Carrie brought out scarves and we could pretend to be butterflies. We talked about what colors we chose for our wings and if they were the same or different. We talked about moving our wings fast or slow. Some friends pretended to drink nectar. After large group, during Outside Time, our teachers released some of the butterflies that we watched in class.
DO THIS AT HOME: Get outside and go on a butterfly hunt. Use your looking eyes (we use the term "looking eyes" in class all the time so the children are familiar with this) and find some butterflies in your yard, at the park, or on a walk. Talk about the colors, the size, and fast or slow. If you can, take a picture of the butterflies you find and talk about them with other family members at home.
