Caterpillars

October Weeks 1 - 2 

 A Cup of Caterpillars 

 

Watching caterpillars turn into butterflies is probably our favorite unit of the year! The other teachers, parents, and I are just as excited as the kids! We order our caterpillar cup from Insect Lore and it is well worth the $15. It takes just a few days to arrive in the mail.

We watch the teeny tiny caterpillars double their size each night, shed their skin and turn into chrysalides (above), and then emerge as butterflies, all within a couple of weeks.

Here is one of our butterflies drinking sugar water from soaked cotton balls. They also love slices of apples, oranges or bananas.

Letter C Caterpillars

We made caterpillars like these from 2 Posh Lil Divas Blog.

5 Little Caterpillars Book

We created a class book to go along with the fingerplay "5 Little Caterpillars." Pairs of students worked on a page with one line of the story. This was a great way to introduce the jobs of authors & illustrators.

These are the words to the book, adapted from a few different versions:

5 little caterpillars munching on a leaf.
1 little caterpillar takes a little sleep.
4 little caterpillars munch the leaf some more.
1 little caterpillar soon begins to snore.
3 little caterpillars munching on their snack.
1 little caterpillar takes a little nap.
2 little caterpillars munching in the sun.
1 little caterpillar says, "I'm done!"
1 little caterpillar munches and chews.
That little caterpillar takes a little snooze.
5 little caterpillars wake up with a cry.
I'm not a little caterpillar. I'm a great big butterfly!

Sequencing The Very Hungry Caterpillar

After reading and retelling The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle several times, the kids independently sequenced the events.

The colorful story cards can be found at DLTK.

Smallest to Biggest

We made BIG caterpillars. These look pretty goofy but are good ordering practice! This idea is from No Time for Flashcards.

Here is the template I use. I copy it onto colored construction paper.

Butterfly Headbands

To conclude the unit, we made symmetry butterfly wings. After applying the dots, we cut the wings out and attached them to sentence strips to turn them into hats!

This is the template I'll be using next year. The ones we used this time were just too big! The stickers are color coding labels, which are easy to find in the office supply section of any grocery/department store.

Counting Caterpillars

We read 10 Little Caterpillars (see the book list at the end of this post) and painted 10 little caterpillars!

The following day, we pasted 10 popsicle sticks and turned those into caterpillars using sequins and foam shapes.

Roll, Say, Color

We played a new math game with the butterfly life cycle! I found this for FREE by Lidia Barbosa on TpT.

Life Cycle Center

The block center was also a popular stop this week, since I added these butterfly life cycle figures from Safari Ltd! 

The butterflies are doing great, and the best part is that the kids are using the vocabulary words they've learned in context! They are even teaching their parents and visiting students words like "antennae" and "proboscis." They are experts!

We also watched a great video on the butterfly life cycle.

Book List

We read our favorite butterfly books!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

The Butterfly Alphabet by Kjell Sandved

Are You a Butterfly? by Judy Allen and Tudor Humphries

Ten Little Caterpillars by Bill Martin, Jr.

What Do Insects Do? by Susan Canizares

Where Do Insects Live? by Susan Canizares