Subject: Science

Grade Level: Pre-School

Time Required: 30 minutes to one hour

Overview: This lesson helps students understand the life cycle of a butterfly in a concrete way.

Materials:

• one paper pate per child
  
  
• rice
  
  
• spiral noodles
  
  
• shell noodles
  
  
• bowtie noodles

Procedure:

• First talk with students about how caterpillars change to butterflies.
  
  
• Take a marker and on the back of the paper plate draw a large cross so that you have 4 equal sections to work in.
  
  
• In the first section the child glues down a small green leaf (either pre-cut from construction paper or a real one) and on top of the leaf glues down a piece of rice (this represents the egg). Write the word "Egg" at the bottom of the section.
  
  
• In the second section the child glues down another leaf and on top of the leaf a spiral noodle. This represents the caterpillar. Write "caterpillar" at the bottom of the section.
  
  
• In the third section the child glues down a shell noodle (this represents the cocoon). Write "cocoon" at the bottom of this section.
  
  
• Finally, in the fourth section, the child glues down a pre-cut flower or draws a flower. He or she then glues down a bowtie noodle (this represents a butterfly). Write "butterfly" at the bottom of this section.