Preschool Lesson Plan: Life Cycle of a Butterfly

The Sweet Bee is a budding entomologist. She loves to catch bugs (usually roly polies) and keep them in containers (the poor bugs don’t last very long). She has been begging to talk about butterflies at school, so that’s we did today.

Play Time/Free Time Downstairs

Circle Time
Welcome Song—Here We Are Together
Pledge of Allegiance
Calendar—Talk about the day, the month, and the date.
Weather –look out the window and discuss the weather

Metamorphosis and Life Cycle

Introduce metamorphosis:  changing from one thing to another

Read: Are you a butterfly?

Follow the lesson plan from Not Just Cute to teach the butterfly life cycle: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly, egg, caterpillar, etc. I used flashcards found here.

Make bead caterpillars (from Make and Takes)

Make clothespin butterflies (inspired by Teach Mama and Make and Takes)Free Play Time

Snack Time: Froot Loop Butterflies (inspired by Teach Mama)

Nature Explorations

We took a walk to discover butterflies in nature. Along the way we found a ladybug.

We were thrilled to find an orange butterfly. It didn’t stay around too long, with 4 eager preschoolers chasing after it. I was only able to snag one quick picture.After our little nature walk we returned home and each child colored their own butterfly life cycle book.

The Butterfly Reading List

Ten Little Caterpillars by Bill Martin

Are you a Butterfly? by Judy Allen

Monarch Butterflies by Helen Frost

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

More Butterfly Explorations

Looking for more explorations? I haven’t tried it, but this Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden looks pretty awesome!

Bow Tie Pasta= Butterflies. Try making a sensory tub, or paint them and make a pretty picture.