A Butterfly Lap Book

by | Mar 28, 2008 | Crafts, Lap Books, Little Saints Preschool, Nature | 11 comments

Twinkle Toes has been talking about Butterflies since our Caterpillar/Cocoon/Butterfly Holy Week Project.

I decided to take her interest a step further and have her make a lap book on Butterflies! She was very excited!

We began by reading a couple of our books:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
The Butterfly by Anna Milbourne

Today we picked up the following additional books about butterfly’s from the library–OH! It is SO NICE to have our library’s open again!– to read during the next couple weeks:

The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco
Butterfly House

She began her lap book by coloring a picture for the cover… Like usual, Chiquita wanted to color one too!

Next she practiced writing the letters C for Caterpillar, and B for Butterfly, and then made alphabet mini books for those 2 letters.

After that she recited her numbers and then worked on practicing number placement for numbers 1-9 in addition to reviewing her colors using a Caterpillar Circles and Colors Activity. She then colored a beautiful Letter B for Butterfly. These were both added to the lap book next to the corresponding mini-books.

Next we discussed, and put together a mini-book, on the life cycle of the butterfly that I found over at Enchanted Learning. Note: This printout requires membership. If you don’t happen to have a member ship at Enchanted Learning, there are still lots of free printables available from them. I just love this site! I reduced the book to 70% before printing.

I also printed out the Painted Lady Butterfly Life Cycle Sequencing Cards which she colored and put in order. We then made an envelope for them inside the lap book.

For copy work, she copied–currently I create a word document, with the letters in light gray, for her to trace–the following poem from one of our favorite books, Favorite Poems Old and New:

Caterpillar
by Christina Rossetti

Brown and furry
Caterpillar in a hurry,
Take your walk
To the shady leaf, or stalk,
Or what not,
Which may be the chosen spot.
No toad spy you,
Hovering bird of prey pass by you;
Spin and die,
To live again a butterfly.


We had some extra room on one side, so we added a Caterpillar that she colored, and then she learned about symmetry through the use of finger paint!

Painted Symmetrical Butterfly

Fold a piece of construction paper in half and cut out a butterfly shape. Open it up and allow the student to dab different colors of paint on one side. Fold the butterfly back up and smooth it down with the palm of the hand. Open it up and you have a symmetrical butterfly.

For the Back of the lap book, and to tie in our Easter butterfly, I printed out a Butterfly Dot-to-dot followed by, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, and the new has come!2 Corinthians 5:17

I made a list of possible activities for the girls to do:

We have only done a few of these so far… I hope to do a few more of them the rest of the week.

Anyhow, here are a few pictures of her completed lap book:





Before I go, has anyone ever had a Butterfly Garden or made your own? It sounds so neat! I’d also love to hear any suggestions you have on any other Butterfly themed picture books!

11 Comments

  1. Margaret

    I know Aunt Diane makes butterfly houses.

    The books look great! You are again doing great things as a mom!

    Reply
  2. queen of the castle

    So cute!!! My children LOVE doing lap books and we plan to get back to doing FIAR and lapbooking when we reach the end of the alphabet path.

    We have many flowers that attract butterflies, though not necessarily a butterfly garden. Purple coneflower (echinacea) is a favorite.

    Reply
  3. Anonymous

    This so neat! Looks like that took a bunch of organizing and Mom prep, my hat’s off to ya!!! Looks like the kids really enjoyed that and they turned out so good too 🙂
    Good job Mom!! I think I wanna try this too….thanks!

    Reply
  4. Marci

    We have a butterfly house. We send off for the live caterpillars and then watch them in their life cycle. After the butterfly comes out, we watch them for about a week then release them. You can order the house online… I think ours was from Insect Lore. (http://insectlore.stores.yahoo.net/ Happy Easter to you too. Would love to get together sometime~ Blessings~ JMJ

    Reply
  5. Marci

    Oh… PS~
    We have also done lady bugs and in Kindergarden Bump watched praying mantis.
    Blessings~
    JMJ

    Reply
  6. Christine

    Beautiful beatufiul beautiful. What a lucky little girl. I really love Mr. Turkey Bird. What a cool dude! Did you name him?

    Reply
  7. Jessica Gordon

    Thank you EVERYONE!! We did really enjoy this… and we just might have to make a Butterfly house!

    And no, Christine… We haven’t named him! 🙂

    Reply
  8. Jamie Jo

    I think I am late to this post, story of my life!

    I love all of it, I wrote everything down. My girls are going to love this, my son might even like this!

    I have seen these lap books before, but you did such a great job at showing it and explaining it, I’m excited to do some. Do you buy the folder like that, or do you cut paper and fold it?

    Beautiful job!

    I know a butterfly fingerplay/song:

    (sign the butterfly sign while singing this)
    Fly, fly, fly!
    Butterfly fly,
    She flies over here (go left)
    and she flies over there (go right)
    She flies up high(above your head)
    and she flies down low (you get it)
    She flies really fast (go fast)
    and she flies really slow.
    Fly butterfly, fly!

    You can switch the bugs to fit whatever you want, ladybugs, etc…

    Reply
  9. Jessica Gordon

    Thanks for the wonderful fingerplay Jamie! TT will love it!!

    I will post later today on how to make lap books!! They are so fun!

    Reply
  10. Ruth

    Love it, love it, love it!!!!!

    Reply
  11. Amy

    Thank you so much for your blog. You are so creative! I am amazed at all you are able to do with such a big (and and soooo beautiful!) family. I am inspired! Can;t wat to use some of your ideas for a butterfly lapbook with my little guys!

    Reply

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