“Then leave the child to repeat the exercise twenty or thirty times. I have heard that, in some cases, children may even repeat it two hundred times. It will happen today, next week, or next month. He is only two years old. Give him time.”
-Maria Montessori, The 1946 London Lectures
Butterfly Works for Every Part of the Classroom
As we move into fall and see the changing seasons, it can be a great time to talk about growing, changing and learning. The classic story The Very Hungry Caterpillar is the perfect book to use at the center of a unit about butterflies and change.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Book and Prop Set is the perfect addition to your language shelf. After reading the book at circle and demonstrating how to use the props to tell the story, this work can be left on the shelf in a basket for children to use. It is a wonderful way for children to practice storytelling, whether they are an early reader or not yet reading.
Tie this lesson to science through a study of the butterfly lifecycle. These lifecycle replica objects are great when paired with our free butterfly lifecycle worksheet. (Side note- Did you know we have worksheets on the website? They are free when paired with any order. Check out the full selection of worksheets here. )
Incorporating this unit into Mathematics is easy with our Count-a-Butterfly work. This work helps children practice one to one correspondence, numeration, counting, and ten frames. Plus, the variety of butterflies is sure to add interest to the work.
Bring the theme into the sensorial area with beautifully crafted butterfly puzzles. The assorted butterfly puzzle displays a variety of types of butterflies for your students to explore. For more advanced puzzlers, add the multi-layer butterfly nesting wood puzzle. It contains five layers and four puzzles that depict the different parts of a butterfly lifecycle.
This week's worksheet is a butterfly ten frame activity that can be used in parallel with the count-a-butterfly math work.
