Bugs and Butterflies
Open Play Ideas/Sensory Bins
Playdough Bugs:
Playdough, pipe cleaners cut into segments, toothpicks, straws cut into segments, and googly eyes.
Playdough Bug Fossils
Playdough and plastic bugs
Life Cycle of a Butterfly
From caterpillar to butterfly
Insect Sensory Bin
Bug Sensory Bin with green-dyed rice
Butterfly Color Sorting Sensory Bin
Paper Tube Color Sorting Pom Pom Activity
Fine Motor Caterpillar Activity (sticks and chenille stems)
Action Songs for Circle or Music Time
Where Did My Caterpillar Go?
by Megan Sheakoski
(Sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)
Where, oh where, did my caterpillar go?
Caterpillar go, caterpillar go?
Where, of where, did my caterpillar go?
Oh look! It’s a butterfly!
As the students sing the beginning lines of the song they cup their hands around their eyes as if they were looking for something. When they sing the last line of the song they point their fingers up to the sky at the pretend butterfly.
Caterpillar and Butterfly Hand Motion Song
by Megan Sheakoski
(Sung to the tune of Are You Sleeping?)
Caterpillar, caterpillar,
In my hand, in my hand,
Soon you’ll be a butterfly.
Soon you’ll be a butterfly.
And fly away. Fly away.
The kids cup their hands and swing them gently back and forth in front of their bodies while singing about the caterpillar. They hook their thumbs and flutter their fingers like wings during the third and fourth line and then move their butterfly fingers up into the air for the last line.
Caterpillar Life Cycle Song
by Megan Sheakoski
(Sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)
A caterpillar has 12 eyes
Has 12 eyes, has 12 eyes,
A caterpillar has 12 eyes
So that he can see!
A caterpillar chews on leaves
Chews on leaves, chews on leaves,
A caterpillar chews on leaves
To get some energy!
Now he rests in a chrysalis
A chrysalis, a chrysalis,
Now he rests in a chrysalis
And becomes a butterfly!
The Butterfly Song by Patty Shukla is a great one to do during music/movement time!
Books
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle
The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle
Bugs A to Z by Caroline Lawton
Hello World! Backyard Bugs by Jill McDonald
Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni