Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Crafts: Butterfly Metamorphosis


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Butterfly Life Cycle

In conjunction with our art studies lesson from SchoolhouseTeachers.com, we studied caterpillars and butterflies. To help reinforce the idea of metamorphosis, we made our own butterfly life cycle picture.

Learn about metamorphosis! clipart of a butterfly

Materials 

Steps 


This time, I tried something new with my children. I modeled what they would be doing on their own paper by drawing it out on a small whiteboard.

1. Gather all your materials. I pre-cut all my shapes for my children but depending on the age and skill of your children, you can have them help you or do it for themselves.

materials needed to make the craft Butterfly Life Cycle


2. Glue on your small pom-poms as eggs.



Butterfly Life Cycle - eggs drawn on a white boarddrawing eggs for butterflies


Butterflies usually lay their eggs on the bottom of leaves or on/near food for the hatching caterpillars.


3. Glue on the caterpillar. Glue on or draw on stripes. We talked about why the caterpillar had stripes for camouflage purposes.

Butterfly Life Cycle caterpillar on a whiteboard

adding caterpillar to the craft


Caterpillars eat and grow. This stage is all about getting bigger so they shed their skins several times as they grow. They usually have stripes to aid in hiding from predators.


4.  Glue on the tree or tree branch, leaves, and chrysalis.

adding on a tree to the metamorphosis craft


When the caterpillar is done growing, it forms a cocoon or chrysalis so it can undergo a transformation to become a butterfly. They might be inside the chrysalis from ten to fourteen days until they hatch.


5. Glue your butterfly onto your paper. You can create a butterfly in a number of ways. We had one made of tissue paper, construction paper, and googly eyes along with hand drawn antennae.

adding on the butterfly to the craft

When a butterfly is ready to hatch, it slowly breaks out of its chrysalis. After about an hour or two, the butterfly's wings are dry and it can fly. The life cycle will begin again as the butterfly finds a mate and then lays eggs.


6. Draw arrows to connect the different steps.

Butterfly Life Cycle drawn on a white board

7. After the picture is dry, display proudly in your home.

Butterfly Life Cycle book and completed craft

Resources 

To find out more information, you can visit the following sites. Remember to review any site before allowing your children to visit it without you.

butterfly book

National Geographic Kids' The Butterfly Life Cycle Page 
The Academy of Natural Sciences' Butterfly Life Cycle Page 
The Children's Butterfly Site's Life Cycle of Butterflies and Moths 




I linked up with the following blog(s):






6 comments:

  1. well done craft, pinning to my insects board.

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  2. Great ideas, I’m saving this for our butterfly unit!

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    1. Thank you! If you post pictures on Instagram, please tag #momquesttoteach so I can share your completed project with my kids. I would love to see them.

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  3. I love this idea! How fun to go along with a unit on butterflies. Thanks for sharing with us at the Virtual Refrigerator. Pinned.

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    1. Thank you...wanted to do something fun without having to raise butterflies ourselves.

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