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Overview: Using manila file folders and arts and crafts supplies, children create a model of the life cycle of a butterfly. When combined with the children's book, From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman, which depicts a class's observations while raising a butterfly from an egg, students visually reinforce the concept of the actual butterfly lifecycle.
Booklink: From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman, a Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science Book, 1996. ISBN 0-46594-00495-6
Science Activity Link: Children construct a model of the life cycle of the butterfly, representing the four stages of complete metamorphosis: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Simple supplies are used to construct the model within a file folder.
Objective: Children will identify, explain, and construct a model of the four stages of the life cycle of a butterfly.
Science Processes and Content: Processes-observing, communicating, and model building. Content-life cycles, characteristics of organisms, and habitats.
National Science Education Standards: Unifying Concepts and Processes, (1) Science as Inquiry, (3) Life Science
Materials: Per child---a 6"x7" piece of green construction paper, one small, white bean OR a piece of white rice, two brown pipe cleaners or chenille strips, each cut in half, ½ inch diameter or larger pompom, a 4"x5" piece of brown paper bag , one large cotton ball OR two small ones, one coffee filter, one small (2 ½ -3 inch) clothes pin, two tiny google eyes, ¼ of a colored OR black pipe cleaner, one manila file folder, tacky glue, scissors, watercolor markers, crayons, colored pencils, and the book From Caterpillar to Butterfly. A cup or similar container, newspaper, and water are also needed to make the butterfly's wings.
Procedure:
Students will be instructed to fold the file folder in half to create four rectangular sections on the folder. Next, have them draw an arrow in each of the four boxes, showing a clockwise direction. Starting with the upper left hand box and moving clockwise, the boxes should be numbered, 1, 2, 3, 4.
Box 1: The word "Egg" should be neatly printed next to the #1. Then the students will each cut out a green paper leaf. The leaf is glued in the box and the white bean (or grain of rice) is glued onto the leaf. Veins can be drawn on the leaves with marker.
Box 2: "Larva" should be written next to the #2. ( NOTE: The students can make the twigs for box 2 and 3 at the same time by twisting one of the brown pipe cleaners around one of the other pieces then repeating this with the remaining pipe cleaners. It should also be noted that the teacher could have the children draw the twigs instead of making them with pipe cleaners. Leaves for the twigs in boxes 2 and 3 can either be cut from the scraps of green paper or drawn with crayon or marker.) Gluing the three pompoms onto the folder, seated on the twig, makes the larva.
Box 3: "Pupa" should be written next to the #3. The pupa is made by gently pulling the cotton ball to make it elongated. The brown paper bag should be torn in pieces and glued around the cotton ball. It's OK if the cotton sticks to the outside of the bag since cocoons tend to be fuzzy. Lines can be drawn on the cocoon, which should then be glued so it hangs from the twig.
Box 4: "Adult" should be written next to the #4. Now use a process called chromatography to make the colorful wings of the butterfly. Placing newspaper under the coffee filter, have the students color or make designs on their filters with watercolor markers. The filter should then be loosely folded into fourths and the wide end dipped approximately ¼ inch into a cup of water. The student should then turn the filter upside down so the water moves through the filter, pulling and blending the colors as it flows. The filters should be opened and laid on newspaper until dry. Once dry, the filter becomes the wings by pinching it in the middle (fan folding the filter) and sliding it into the slit of the clothespin. Using the remaining small piece of pipe cleaner, twist it around the top of the clothespin to make the antennae. The eyes are glued to either side of the head.
The book, From Caterpillar to Butterfly, can be read either as a introduction to the activity or as a follow-up, allowing the students to follow the life cycle of their own model butterfly with that of the one in the book.
Related Books:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, Philomel Books, 1986. ISBN 0-399-20853-4
Where Butterflies Grow by Joanne Ryder, Lodestar Books, 1989. ISBN 0-525-67284-2
The Butterfly Book: A Child's Guide to Attracting, Raising, and Keeping Butterflies by Kersten Hamilton, John Muir Publications, 1997. ISBN 1-56261-309-X
The Caterpillar and the Pollywog by Jack Kent, The Trumpet Club, 1982. ISBN 0-440-84620-X
Butterflies and Moths by George S. Fichter, A Golden Book, 1993. ISBN 0-307-61435-2
Creepy, Crawly Caterpillars by Margery Facklam, Little, Brown and Co., 1996. ISBN 0-316-27342-2
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