9 butterfly centers for home or classroom

Happy Spring! We're about to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar in our classroom so I was reviewing what we did last year as I worked on next week's lesson plan. I was super happy with what we did last year so thought I would give all y'all a reminder in case you need a little inspiration! Happy planing!

*beaded caterpillars: you can set this up photos of caterpillars, beads, and pipecleaners or you can challenge your kiddos to create a caterpillar pattern!

*butterfly memory/matching game: i just finished making a pretty butterfly matching game but last year we used this one which came from a helpful blogger. you can make your own game or find one online like this or this.

*dot marker butterflies: this set-up can be enjoyed any number of ways depending on where your kiddo is developmentally. dot markers are a plus but you can use paint and sponges, crayons, or watercolors.

*butterfly magnet play: i made this last year and have no in progress photos for a diy post. i purchased butterfly stickers from Michael's, i think they came from the Martha Stewart line, and added magnet tape to the back. I then painted up some green paper a la Eric Carle and adhered it to a metal pizza pan for a happy little bit of magnet play.

*stacked wooden caterpillars: i blogged about this one last year and the children had a lot of fun making their own caterpillars. they were quite proud.

*magnetic chalkboard butterfly: another favorite from last year. maybe this year we will utilize the felt backs or maybe I'll find some neon chalk!

*The Very Hungry Caterpillar button snake: I did not make this but there are a few diys out there like this or you can find one on etsy like this.

*bubble wrap butterflies: this project works best on a wall or easel and can be used many times over before discarding. wipe down the painty goodness with a sponge or damp cloth and the next kiddo is good to go!

*chalkboard butterfly: i did not make this at all but lucked out when i found it last year at Michael's. i'm not sure if they have them this year or not. check out your local craft store or amazon (this one might work).

the very hungry caterpillar button string

We spent a week exploring the concepts found in Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. One of our most popular activities was this gorgeous handmade button string that included all of the components from the story. This was an item that I discovered already in our classroom from the previous year. I cannot remember if my co-teacher had made it or a parent volunteer. Either way I am so grateful and happy that we have something as lovely as this for our children to explore.

The focus the children invested in this activity was astounding! Button snakes are excellent fine motor activities for young ones.  This one in particular is extra special as you can practice order and sequencing with your children. Questions can be asked about the order and the children can use the book as a reference tool as well. All sorts of lovely vocabulary words can be introduced. I now have a list of other button snakes I want to make for our class!

diy stacked {very} hungry caterpillars

making smoothies in the classroom

One of our activities for our week of The Very Hungry Caterpillar was to make fruit smoothies. The children were very excited at the idea and talked a lot about when we were going to do it.

On smoothie day, each kiddo brought a piece/type of fruit to class. I notified parents ahead of time and asked them to not bring bananas as I worried that each kiddo would bring a banana, I would supply those.  I also brought along a few other types of fruit that I thought would be fun to explore. We did not stick with the fruit from the book as I wanted the children to decide which fruit they brought to class. We had strawberries, blackberries, apples, peaches, plums, oranges, apricots, and kiwis. A cornucopia! Thank goodness we have no fruit allergies in this class!  The children were very excited to get started as they were going to cut their own fruit with real  (butter) knives! Each piece of fruit was introduced and we talked about the visual characteristics. I talk a lot about us being detectives of the world and how we use our five senses to seek out clues. We used our eyes to give us visual clues to determine what kind of fruit we had. We see an orange is round and of course orange. We then use our nose to smell the fruit before we cut it, we use our hands to touch and then we use our mouth to taste, etc. Some of the fruit was new to the children and we would guess what color the inside was and write down our predictions. There was a lot of excitement, vocabulary, community, etc.

I found this really awesome blender at Target for $15. It makes a 16oz drink and you can drink from the base if ya like. It is not a very loud blender but still loud enough to unsettle my sound sensitive student so before using it we talked about the sound a blender makes and she took some time to decide if she wanted to be in the kitchen with ears covered our in the reasing corner with pillows piled over her, etc. We put in our fruit with a few ice cubes, a smidge of pineapple juice to help get things going and the children took turns blending away. It was thrilling! When the smoothie was deemed finished, the children took turns pouring their drink into their own cups.  Making a smaller smoothie is crucial as all that fruit in those little bellies...well...you know.

Here is this photo again showing the scale of our blender. I love it and the children were so serious when they were blending their smoothies. It was a delicious smoothie and made more than enough for our small group. If you have room in your class to store a small blender I would highly recommend it. Though, I do have to admit I take my blender home to store and use as I find it makes a much better smoothie than our large Oster. Cheers!

dot marker butterflies {a lesson in symmetry}

I thought it would be fun, during our week of The Very Hungry Caterpillar to use dot markers to create symmetrical patterns on butterflies.

I drew the butterflies freehand onto our large white paper (still haven't picked up a code for the copy machine but I'm too busy too get into the office to make copies anyway) with pencil for the first one then used Sharpie over it. I used our window as a lightbox to make copies the old fashioned way but the children were going through them so fast I just drew them when we needed more. Talk about muscle memory, I can probably draw these in my sleep!

As with the magnetic butterflies we talked about symmetry. Some of the children wanted to match what I did so instead, I asked them to make a pattern so I could match theirs. After a few trial runs, the a-ha! moments kicked in and they were having a blast. Now, if only I could figure out how to preserve those sponge tips on the dot markers. Any ideas?

diy beaded caterpillars

The children had a blast creating these easy-peasy bead and pipe cleaner caterpillars. I was actually a little surprised at how much they enjoyed this activity. They were quite proud of their critters and a few of the children even decided to bring them to their rest mats.

The set up was really easy, the children chose their favorite colors of the day and sorted their beads into their small bowls (I do love that set of bowls). When they were all ready, they chose one color to be the head of their Very Hungry Caterpillar and threaded it onto their pipe cleaner enough to bend the top of the stem around their bead thus anchoring it in place. Vocabulary we used included, pipe cleaner, chenille stem, top, tip, anchor, thread, and bead both as a noun and a verb. We also took advantage of this activity to work on our patterning. Some of the children added beads then removed all of them and then began all over again.

Such an easy and simple activity that encourages fine motor practice and patterning. There was a lot of discussion at the table between the children so add socialization to the list as well as spatial recognition (how many beads is too many beads), color recognition, vocabulary, and counting! I am looking forward to presenting this activity next year to my soon-to-be new class!