Kindergarten and First Grade Thematic Unit for Butterfly Gardening First, resources are important! We will incorporate different activities that integrate butterflies with core subjects. For example, a butterfly art project will include: Crayon Art and Butterfly Gardening Ingredients: Peel different colors of Crayons with an Apple Peeler, making sure to keep all the colors separated from each other Make a Butterfly Pattern out of Cardstock 3 boxes of wax paper  Construction Paper (any colors) iron (for teacher use only!) towels Step 1: Have children trace the butterfly pattern onto the construction paper. Have them cut out the center of the pattern without cutting the edges. The key here is folding the pattern in half and having the children ONLY cutting on the fold! Step 2: Place on piece of uncut construction paper on the desk. Place one sheet of wax paper down on the table. Step 3. Have children choose different colors of crayon shavings that can represent a butterfly. Remind them that all butterflies wings are mirror images of each other and the right and left need to be the same. Step 4: Have children place another sheet of wax paper over their crayons. Step 5. Teacher will lay down the towel and iron the crayon shavings together. Step 6. Wait 5-10 minutes for the project to cool down Step 7: Have children glue or staple the two construction papers around the edges. Step 8: Admire your work! You have created your own butterfly? How close does it resemble a real butterfly? Step 9: Discussion on butterflies. Ask students if they know what a mirror image is? Promote awareness of living versus non-living things. Is their butterfly living? Gradually integrate into Science. Science Unit for Butterflies Resources: CTP Theme Units has a Butterflies and Moths Unit with wonderful Reproducibles for Science, "Keeping Minibeasts Butterflies and Moths" series by Barrie Watts, "How to Hide a Butterfly: and other Insects" by Ruth Keller, "Where does a butterfly Go When it Rains?" by May Garelick. There are countless resources here on the internet under www.Amazon.com or the topic "Butterflies". Our Question for Earth Science and Life Science will be: to observe and identify the characteristics of living things versus nonliving things. We will identify ways that living things adapt to our butterfly garden. What happens when it rains? What are seasons? What is the pattern in the butterfly life? Is it always a butterfly? Where do we start? Step 1: Start with your own Butterfly Garden by taking the children on an observation tour. Step 2: Ask the children questions to promote discussion along the way. For example: What is living in our garden? Are the planter boxes living? Are the trees living? What do the plants need to grow? Is there anything else in our garden that is living? Do we see anything flying around in our garden? (Students will probably answer yes, butterflies, ladybugs and/or ants, spiders, etc). Step 3: Have children walk around on their own in the garden. Let them explore looking at and observing the colors of the flowers, plants, size of the leaves, and flowers, and even if there are any butterflies in the garden. Let children discuss with their peers some of the things they see. Step 4: Return to classroom. Have children draw a picture of what they have seen. Give all children crayons and unlined paper. Fold the paper in half. On one side, have all children draw pictures of nonliving things in the garden. Promote discussion to stimulate their thinking. Did they think that planter boxes and water hoses were living or nonliving? On the other side of the paper, have them draw a picture of the living things. Promote discussion to stimulate their thinking. Did they see butterflies or ladybugs? Have them draw what they saw. To further their learning and growth on this activity, discuss the following: 1.Life cycle of a butterfly, explain metamorphosis to them. Use CTP's Butterflies and Moths book 2. What plants need to grow (AIMS has some great activities for this question). MATHEMATICS INTEGRATION 1. Get a ditto of multiple butterflies. Copy onto construction paper. Use as counters. Children can go to the Butterfly Habitat and for every butterfly they see, they can color a butterfly counter. {check back for more lessons-this unit is under construction still!} Back to Goals