Welcome to the first-ever Discover and Explore weekly themed linky! Each week we hope to collect a variety of resources based on a specific theme. I hope these posts become a fantastic list of inspiration and ideas that can be used by parents, teachers, and anyone who works with kids. Don’t forget to stop by KC Edventures to check out what Jacquie is sharing for the butterfly theme.
Now let’s Discover and Explore Butterflies…
We recently celebrated Tinker’s second birthday. For each birthday I try to relate the theme to something the girls are currently interested in, and this year’s theme was butterflies. One of the gifts we purchased for her was the Insect Lore Live Butterfly Pavilion, and it was probably the gift everyone in the family enjoyed most. The pavilion comes with a voucher for 6-10 caterpillars. I redeemed the voucher online (faster!), and we soon had two containers of tiny larvae to observe.
Although I’ve had the opportunity to raise caterpillars in a classroom setting before, this experience was much different for us. In the classroom for a variety of reasons, I didn’t give the kids enough time to just sit and watch the caterpillars, and I wish I would have done that differently somehow. Here at home we put the caterpillars right on the kitchen counter where we could see them during our snack times and other activities. We were constantly drawn to the caterpillars, and it gave us many opportunities to talk about how they were changing and the different behaviors we noticed. The kids (and even the grownups in the house) were fascinated by the whole process, and it’s something we will continue to do as we find our own caterpillars outdoors.
All ten of our caterpillars turned into butterflies, and before we knew it they were ready to fly off on their own. One of my very favorite moments happened while we were trying to release the butterflies. We expected them to fly away eagerly, but these two just seemed to want to hang out with us a bit longer. I snapped this photo of Lovey as she was willing them to fly. Her sweet words melted my heart, “Come on you can do it. Go join your brothers and sisters. You can fly back and say hello to me everyday.”
Our Butterfly Song
We love singing songs. This one was inspired and adapted from one of the butterfly songs shared at Perpetual Preschool. It is sung to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus, and the kids loved doing their own interpretive dances of the butterfly’s life cycle.
Little caterpillar is crawling around, crawling around, crawling around
Little caterpillar is crawling around, in the yard.
Big caterpillar is making a chrysalis, making a chrysalis, making a chrysalis
Big caterpillar is making a chrysalis, in the yard.
Pretty butterfly is flying around, flying around, flying around
Pretty butterfly is flying around, in the yard.
Some of the Other Butterfly Resources We Used
Preschool Powol Packets has a great collection of facts about painted lady butterflies that might be fun to share with kids during your butterfly activities.
This Sesame Street YouTube of Elmo singing Little Butterfly Friend was also a favorite in the house.
I wish I had time to do a full book list of all of the great books we read about butterflies, but for now I will just share a few of our favorites in the widget below.
Get a Full Week of 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)
Jennifer
Visiting from the Sunday Showcase. I’d love for you to share your family-friendly crafts and ideas at Monday Kid Corner at thejennyevolution.com. See you at the party!
Jennifer
Allison
We are enjoying watching our caterpillars grow right now. 🙂 I’m featuring this on The Sunday Showcase tomorrow.
Shaunna
Oh, it’s such an awesome experience. I hope you guys are enjoying it as much as we did. Thanks so much for featuring this post.
Beth
What a fun butterfly study. The butterfly pictures you captured were AMAZING!
Thanks for linking up to TGIF! Hope to see you linked up again today =)
Have a great weekend,
Beth =)
Shaunna
Thank you! It’s definitely an experience we’ll remember and try again next year!
Stephanie
Thank you for hosting! I love that your new linky is themed- lots of great ideas in one spot!
Shaunna
Thanks for joining in! I’m excited about the themes, too. I’m discovering a lot of new ideas. 🙂
Ann @ My Nearest and Dearest
What sweet words your daughter said to the butterflies. 🙂
Shaunna
I know…sweet girl!
Aleacia
How sweet that a couple butterflies hung around for a bit and that your daughter was able to talk to them <3
So many butterfly ideas linked up! Can't wait to look through them all!
Shaunna
Isn’t that sweet? It was such a tender moment.
And you’re right…so many wonderful ideas! I hope you enjoy looking through them.
Tanya
Shaunna, you did a fantastic job teaching your girls about butterflies! I’m sure they will always remember it. This is a wonderful resource! Definitely a “pin it” post! I’ll be back to link up for several of the future themes- I LOVE the themed linky!! 🙂
Shaunna
Thanks, Tanya! I’m so glad you like the themed linky, and I’m looking forward to see what you post in the future!
Sugar Aunts
What a fun activity! I love your daughter’s sweet words to the butterflies! We have a post I can link up, yay! Thanks for sharing with us at Share It Saturday!
Shaunna
I was so touched by her sweet words, too. So glad to have you join in the linky. I hope you’ll come back and participate in our future themes.
chelsey
I love these themed linky parties! Great idea! I’m super excited about this butterfly one because our hometown celebrates the arrival of monarchs each fall. I’m always on the lookout for butterfly activities to do around this time!
Shaunna
I’ve read about places that celebrate the arrival of monarchs. Seems like something neat to experience! Glad to have you join in the linky when you can.
Paula
Shaunna,
Thanks so much for inviting me to your linky party! This is so much fun! Fantastic ideas from everyone!
Paula
Learn + Play = PreK
Shaunna
I really appreciate you taking the time to stop by and link up, Paula. I hope you’ll come back and share your favorite Earth Day post next week.
Claire
Thanks so much for sharing. We’ll be doing an Eric Carle unit over the summer and all these ideas are perfect!
Shaunna
These activities will go along nicely! I look forward to seeing your Eric Carle posts!
Scribble Doodle and Draw
What a wonderful collection! Thank you for sharing!
Shaunna
Thanks so much for joining us! I hope you’ll come back to share more ideas next week for our Earth Day theme.
Pinkoddy
What a lovely idea. Thank you for hosting.
Would love it if you could link up to the Spring Carnival.
Shaunna
Thanks! I hope you’ll come back and link up often.
Pinkoddy
Thank you. Yes if I forget I’m usually on twitter if you’d like to give me a nudge x
Shaunna
I’ll send that nudge your way 🙂
Ashley
We found a very old butterfly post! Hooray! 🙂
Shaunna
I think that is one of the great aspects of this format…we get to share some of those older but still awesome posts! Thanks for joining in!
Anna - The Measured Mom
This is such a fabulous idea! Unfortunately we haven’t done any butterfly stuff yet 🙂 But I look forward to getting lots of ideas here!
Shaunna
Thanks! I’m really excited about the weekly themes. Sad you can’t participate this week, but I hope you’ll be able to join in soon!