Butterfly Education Day
Hello children I'm Jude, an author and storyteller. Here are my storytelling mascots Lamby and Flossie. Today is Butterfly Education Day and we're going to be thinking about butterflies, their life cycle and how we can make our own butterflies using paints and shapes.
9.30am Activity:
Life Cycle of a Butterfly
Butterflies aren't born as butterflies, they start as something else. We're going to sing a song which takes us through the life cycle of a butterfly. You might know the tune.
Grown Ups:
Encourage your child to join in with the actions and words. Talk about the butterfly life cycle. You might like to download the activity to complete after the song.
Use language such as egg, caterpillar, cocoon, butterfly, life cycle, change, grow
Develops - Communication and Language, Understanding the World skills and PSED
10.30am Activity:
Making Caterpillars
When a butterfly egg hatches a caterpillar pops out. We are going to make our own caterpillars using buttons or pieces of paper. We can see how long we can make them, count how many buttons we use or see how many different patterns we can make.
Grown Ups:
Encourage your child to make their caterpillars exploring length and pattern. Show them how to count each part of the caterpillar by touching each button as you say the number.
Use language such as - count, circle, buttons, pattern, long, short, how many.
Develops - Communication and Language, Maths and Understanding the World skills.
Why not try -
Using up to five buttons to make a caterpillar.
Using up to ten buttons to make a caterpillar.
Using more than ten buttons to make a caterpillar.
1:30pm Activity:
Symmetrical Butterfly
Butterflies are symmetrical which means the patterns are the same on both wings. We're going to use paint to make our own symmetrical butterfly. You'll need an apron and something to protect the table or floor for this activity.
Grown Ups:
Encourage your child to decide where to add the paint on one of their butterfly wings. Encourage them to fold the paper over and smooth the paint out. Talk about what symmetrical means.
Use vocabulary such as symmetrical, wings, butterfly, paint, fold, half, the same.
Develops - Understanding the World, Maths and Communication and Language and Expressive Art and Design skills.
Why not try -
1. Encourage your child to make their symmetrical butterfly using paint.
2. Explore other symmetrical patterns using paint and folding paper.
3. Explore symmetry through shapes i.e cutting square paper in half to show how it is the same on both sides.
2:30pm Activity:
Butterfly Shapes
This time we're going to make a butterfly using different shapes and a dice. Remember to make the wings look symmetrical.
Grown Ups:
Encourage your child to roll the dice, count the spots and put the same number of shapes on each wing. Talk about symmetry and how both sides will look the same.
Use language such as - dice, roll, count, shapes, shape names, symmetrical, same, both sides.
Develops - Maths, Communication & Language, and Understanding the World skills.
Why not try -
Using just the shapes and no dice to explore symmetry.
Use the dice to select the correct number of shapes.
Use the dice and count how many of each shape at the end.
Story time:
Am I Nearly There Yet?
Snuggle up as Jude reads her bilingual story all about Monarch butterfies and how they travel to Mexico each year.
