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Butterflies


Butterflies are another sign of summer to me. Hazel and I have been seeing quite a few and learning about them as well. Between our adventures at Mass Audubon (in and out of scheduled programs) and just in our yard, we have been seeing them everywhere! This summer Hazel has learned to recognize a monarch butterfly and has learned to say monarch. Oh, and I saw the Butterfly Lifecycle pieces at Michaels as well as the frog one we looked at with our program! We have also found a few books to help us learn about them.
The first is The Butterfly by Anna Milbourne and Cathy Shimmen. We bought this one at the zoo. It goes through the life of a butterfly from caterpillar to butterfly's eggs hatching. The pictures are nice and colorful.

The second is What's the Difference Between a Butterfly and a Moth? by Robin Koontz. I saw this book on Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational awhile ago and looked for it at the library. I have always wondered how you could tell the difference.

The third is A Butterfly Is Patient by Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long. This book goes into great detail about what characteristics a butterfly must have for its life cycle as well well labeled illustrations of the different species at all stages.

The fourth is my favorite. It is See How They Grow Butterfly photographed by Kim Taylor. This book starts with a photograph of an egg and its mother and takes you through every stage from hatching to pictures with exactly how many weeks it is old. The pictures are amazing!! I definitely recommend this one if you want to learn/teach more about the life cycle.

Today we did some butterfly crafts. First we borrowed an idea from One Artsy Mama and made beaded butterflies by putting beads on pipe cleaners. (I should add that she posted this the other day which is why I say she inspired it. Looking at my pins I see I had a similar one pinned and the original source is indietutes.) Now I did this from memory this morning and thought about using clothespins, but we didn't. We did it with pipe cleaners and beads. This probably made it easier, but not as great for use.

Next we took the idea from  Creative Play For Your Toddler: Steiner Waldorf Expertise and Toy Projects for 2-4s by Christopher Clouder and Janni Nicol. We used three squares of tissue paper and a pipe cleaner. We added on a wooden bead for the head. The book suggested making a mobile. We have not done that yet, but Hazel is enjoying playing with them.

Some of the other crafts I have done from this book can be found here and here.













We also did a similar one using tulle and a pipe cleaner.
The last thing I would like to share is a gift Hazel picked out for me awhile ago at Drumlin Farm Gift Shop.  (My birthday was this week, so I got to open them this week.)



We will be doing more butterfly crafts as well as dragonflies! Stay tuned!

This is where I share...


8 comments:

  1. So fun! Glad to have inspired you! :) They turned out great!

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  2. What cute butterfly crafts! I love it!

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  3. Love the beady ones! Will be trying this. (so I'm pinning it)
    Thank you

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  4. What great ideas! I'm a teacher, and with school starting back these will be so fun to make. Your newest follower from Friday Fun Party. :)

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  5. Hi! I'd love to Link Up your post to our butterfly theme at http://creativethemesforlearningandplay.blogspot.ca/
    Please get back to me if you would like to participate.
    ~ joey ~

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  6. These are some really cute ideas to do with the books. Thanks for sharing these on Saturday Show and Tell. I hope you'll be back again with more great ideas!
    -Mackenzie
    http://www.cheeriosandlattes.com

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  7. So cute! You always have awesome ideas! We just went to a butterfly exhibit where they all landed on us and our local library has a caterpillar in the children's center which just recently made a chrysalis! It's so cool to see it each week. Thanks so much for linking up to our Pinteresting Party!

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  8. What a great post full of ideas! We have a butterfly unit coming up, so I'm pinning this to my butterfly board. Thank you for linking up to The Sunday Showcase.

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