When possible we love to integrate student interests into our learning activities. In the spring kids are fascinated by all the new little creatures we encounter during outside play. As part of our preschool butterfly theme lesson plans for home preschool and preschool classrooms we “fed” caterpillars to practice counting, explored numbers and more with a caterpillar counting sensory bin, and created caterpillar egg counting mats to practice number recognition, counting, and fine motor skills as we learn about the life cycle of a butterfly.
Materials for Caterpillar Egg Counting
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These mats can be used as a center activity, an independent work task, an after school activity or any time you’d like to incorporate some extra math practice into your preschool or kindergarten plans. We used:
- Jumbo tweezers
- Pom poms
- Free printable counting mats (link below)
You could also use different counters like buttons, glass gems or something similar to represent the caterpillar eggs if you choose not to add in the tweezers for added fine motor practice.
Let’s Play
I personally let kids choose how they use approach using the materials. Some will add “eggs” to each leaf one at a time out of order. Others will line up all the leaves in order first and then add the pom poms to each leaf.
Observing their thinking process and discussing their strategy is a great way to get them talking about their math thinking from an early age.
If you’d like you can use the mats for more guided instruction as well, you might:
- Have kids choose two letters, add the pom poms, and compare the amounts
- Give kids 3 (or any number of) leaves, have them place them in order from greatest to least (or vice versa) and then add the pom poms
- Give kids one leaf (for example the 8 leaf) and some pom poms (maybe 5) and ask how many more they’ll need to add to finish the leaf
Whatever approach you use we hope your kids enjoy this butterfly themed preschool math activity!
Get Your Free Printable Counting Mats
More Counting Mats
Box of Chocolates Counting Mats
Get a Full Week of Caterpillar and Butterfly Theme Learning and Play
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.
This set includes active hands-on learning ideas and the following printables:
1) Butterfly Life Cycle Roll and Graph Game
2) Butterfly Life Cycle Roll and Graph Game
3) Caterpillar Uppercase Alphabet Cards
4) Butterfly Lowercase Alphabet Cards
5) Butterfly Life Cycle Cards
6) Butterfly Symmetry Matching Cards
7) Butterfly Life Cycle Word Building Mats
8) Caterpillar Measurement Recording Sheet
9) Caterpillar Patterning Activity
10) Caterpillar Syllable Sort
11) Caterpillar Egg Leaf Counting Mats (Numbers 1-10)
Get Your Lesson Plans
Home Preschool and Preschool Classroom lesson plans also available on Teachers Pay Teachers.
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