Overview:
The activity is intended to teach the cycle of a butterfly. It is for Kindergarten and should last between 30-45 minutes.

Purpose:
The student will role play and draw the various stages an insect goes through to become a butterfly.
TEKS: 6c record observations about animal parts

Materials:

• book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• white sheet
• wings
• caterpillar in jar
• journals
• string and paper butterfly
• crayons

Getting Ready:

• Know the stages a butterfly goes through: egg...larvae...pupa...butterfly
• Butterflies emerge from chrysalises, moths emerge from cocoons
• Some butterflies reflect in their wing color things they have eaten
• There are some differences in moths and butterflies:
  • butterflies have balls on the end of antennaes
  • many butterflies have smaller thorax than moths
• Butterflies have 3 main body regions: head, thorax, abdomen
• Butterflies have 3 pairs of jointed legs
• Butterflies have one pair of antennae
• Poster, puppets, sheet, wings, and book all together in box

Motivate:
Boys and girls, I am going to do a magic trick and I want you to watch very carefully what I am about to do.

Teacher gets an ordinary string and stretches it out... (Keeping one hand clutched in a ball with the paper butterfly inside)... as children watch, slowly stick the string inside the balled up hand from the top. When the string is all inside, tell the children something magical is happening to the string. Have them count slowly to three and pull out the butterfly from the bottom. While you are flittering it around with the other hand, the one holding the string sticks the string in your pocket. They wi ll be amazed.

Today we are going to see the different stages a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly... like my string caterpillar did. I will do this again at the end of the lesson and let you in on my secret... but you must listen.

Activity:

• Read the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
• Stop periodically to ask questions to internalize story.
• Choose best listeners to act out the story.
  • one child is caterpillar
  • different child is food item
• The caterpillar begins in a ball position until it hatches. It crawls out and around as the story is reread and eats the food. It crawls under the sheet (chrysalis) and puts on wings... when the story is over it emerges as a butterfly.

Safety:
Demonstrations given so butterfly doesn't become wild. Children should not be allowed to jump on caterpillar in chrysalis state. Children not participating are sitting and watching quietly until it is their turn to participate.

Concept Discovery:
As we go through the role playing, we will stop at various intervals and tell the scientific name for the stage of the caterpillar.

Going Further:
Have children make the movements of caterpillar with hands while you show with puppet.

• egg (hand in fist position)
• larva (index finger extended, scrunched, extended, ...)
• pupa (index finger inside other hand's fist [like hot dog])
• butterfly (two hands interlocking an doing flying motion)

Closure:
Remind children of what we did and do magic trick again. This time it is slowed down and children see what you did. Give them a piece of string and a butterfly to try it. They will be allowed to take the string home and demonstrate it to a family memb er.

Assessment:
Have the children go to seats and draw the various stages a butterfly goes through in journals. They may label using invented spelling.

Connections:
Language Arts: children label parts of butterfly with invented spelling
Math: Ordering of events (TEKS (2))
Modeling operations (TEKS (4)): using butterfly for simple addition or subtraction
Patterns (TEKS (5))

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