Preschool Butterfly Activities

How is it possible not to have butterfly activities in spring? You go outside, the butterflies are fluttering in the air, the flowers are blooming and the kids... the kids are just excited when they see these colorful and amazing creatures called butterflies.

O.k. so it's true that just looking at butterflies is enjoyment all of its own, but why not take advantage of kids' natural curiosity and enrich it with information? I'm all for enrichment, how about you? If you too are for enrichment, the butterfly activities that you will find here will be of great help to you.

The life cycle of the butterfly

Stage one - The female lays eggs on a plant.

Stage two - The caterpillars hatch out of the eggs, and spend most of their time eating leaves from the plant on which the eggs were laid. The caterpillars shed their skin a numbers of times during their growth period.

Stage three - The caterpillars harden their skin and make a chrysalis where they will spend the next stage.

Last stage - The insect inside the chrysalis changes and becomes a butterfly. When the butterfly is ready it comes out of the chrysalis and into the world outside.

And now to the activities... It's about time isn't it?

So which butterfly activities have we got here? The butterfly activities will focus on three main areas:

• Enrichment pages for the cultivation of skills such as: discrimination between same and different, sequences, recognition of numbers and motory skills.
• Games - for printing and playing
• Arts and crafts ideas

Enrichment pages

• Completion of the butterfly's life cycle
• Color the butterfly by numbers
• Maze - Help the butterfly to reach the flower
• Matching the butterfly to its shadow
• Completion of butterfly sequence
• Which butterfly does not belong?
• Creating a spring picture (cutting, sticking, coloring)

Games

• Zeroes and crosses (0 and X) with butterflies
• Butterfly domino
• A memory game

Arts and crafts ideas

Materials:

• Construction paper
• Paper mache
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• Aluminum foil
• Markers
• Colored stickers

Instructions:

• Draw a butterfly on the construction paper.
• Place paper mache on the drawn butterfly.
• Wrap everything in aluminum foil.
• Trace the outline of the butterfly with markers.
• Decorate and stick on colored stickers.

Materials:

• Rubber foam sheets
• Pipe cleaners
• Colored stickers
• Glue

Instructions:

• Draw a butterfly on the rubber foam sheet and cut out.
• Cut out a rectangle from the rubber foam sheet whose length is double the length of the butterfly's body.
• Fold the rectangle into two, and stick along the sides leaving the bottom open to enable insertion of a finger.
• Stick the rectangle in the middle of the butterfly.
• The pipe cleaners form two antennae when placed on the top of the rectangle.
• Decorate with rubber foam and colored stickers.

Materials:

• Strips of construction paper
• Polystyrene balls
• Pipe cleaners
• Moving eyes
• Glue
• Markers

Instructions:

• Cut the Polystyrene balls into two and color them.
• Stick the Polystyrene balls along the length of the construction paper.
• The pipe cleaners form two antennae when placed on the top of the first Polystyrene ball.
• Stick on moving eyes and draw a mouth.