Butterfly Business!

Friends~I just love integrating science and reading with my daily lessons.  With the warm weather and spring in full swing my mind turns to one of my favorite life cycles: BUTTERFLIES.  If you have not raised butterflies with your class you are truly missing out on a beautiful learning opportunity.  

Check out just a few of the fun things I have collected over the years to bring the world of butterflies & into my classroom.  

My very favorite is this GEO Safari Talking Telescope.  It comes with tons of insect slides for kiddos to explore.  It tells insect facts and even gives a quiz!  Click the image above to purchase:)

I also have models of the life cycle out for my students to refer to.  Insect Lore offers fantastic life cycle models.  Here is the one I use in class. 

My favorite butterfly book to read with my class when studying the life cycle is The Life Cycle of a Butterfly by Bobbie Kalman. 

This book is wonderful because it walks you through each stage of the life cycle! 

When reading this book, I journey with my students through the stages while focusing on text features of an informational book.  Like captions, bold face words, insets, and diagrams.  We make a craft to represent each stage.  I then display them on the bulletin board outside my classroom.  I change them as our study develops.  Check out our caterpillars!

Yep...those are gummy worms!  They work perfectly!  I use the image below to diagram with the class.  I blow it up big on my smartboard.  Once we are done labeling, my students have a great model to use when creating their own gummy caterpillars!

Click the image below to grab a FREE copy to use with your own gummy caterpillars!

(Just a tip...I hot glue the gummy worms first to card stock:)

If you are interested in the other stages and how I represent them in a craft, just give the image below a click!  I promise your students will LOVE them all!