EHS Life Cycles

Changes to Environment

Posters of different life cycles of things such as butterfly, plant, etc.

Pictures of different life cycles of things such as butterfly, plant, etc.

Life cycle felt pieces

Books about life cycles

Frog puppets

Butterfly puppets

Plastic frogs, butterflies, plants, etc

Bug containers

Magnifying glasses

Empty seed packets

Shovel and pail

Dirt

Fake lily pads w/flower

Binoculars

Fake leaves

Fake flowers

Water Table: blue water, fake lily pads with flowers, plastic tadpoles and frogs(use laminated pictures if you don't have), rocks, droppers, etc

Sensory Table: plastic butterflies, plastic caterpillars, fake green leaves, fake flowers, sticks, crinkle grass, tweezers, bug counters, nets, tubes, magnifying glass, etc.

Teaching Concepts for Indoor Experiences

1. Hungry Caterpillar felt pieces or puppet play

2. Plant flower seeds (non poisonous) (teacher supervised)

3. Glue life cycle cut outs on to paper

4. Make tadpoles out of playdough

5. Use magnifying glasses to look at photos of different life cycles

6. Look at pictures of species that are hatched from eggs and others that are not

7. Glue large pom poms on paper to look like caterpillar

8. Child will squirt paint on paper,  fold over, press/rub, open, looks like butterfly

Teaching Concepts for Music Movement Wellness IMIL

1. Pretty Butterfly (tune: Up on the Housetop)

First comes a butterfly

Who lays an egg.

Out comes a caterpillar

With many legs.

Oh, see the caterpillar

Spin and spin.

A little chrysalis to sleep in.

Oh, oh, oh, look and see,

Oh, oh, oh, look and see,

Out of the chrysalis, my oh my,

Out comes a pretty butterfly!

2. The Life of a Butterfly (tune: Skip to My Lou)

I’m a caterpillar, wiggle with me,

I’m a caterpillar, wiggle with me,

I’m a caterpillar, wiggle with me,

What’ll I be my darlin’?

A chrysalis, now sleep like me,

A chrysalis, now sleep like me,

A chrysalis, now sleep like me,

What’ll I be my darlin’?

A butterfly, come fly with me,

A butterfly, come fly with me,

A butterfly, come fly with me,

What’ll I be my darlin’?

Now all together, let’s do all three!

A caterpillar, a chrysalis, a butterfly, three!

Move your body like this with me,

The life of a butterfly, darlin’!

3.  ABC Butterfly

A B C D E

I found a butterfly on me!

F G H I J

She started out in a very small way.

K L M N O

An egg smaller than my toe!

P Q R S T

Next a caterpillar she will be.

U V W X Y

In a chrysalis is where she’d lie.

Z Z Z Z Z

That’s how my butterfly came to be!

4.The Cocoon

I found a cocoon

That a caterpillar made,

Fastened to a leaf

Hanging in the shade.

He barely had room

To wiggle or wag,

Like me zipped up

In my sleeping bag.

I looked each time

That I passed his way,

But he never budged

Until just today.

Something happened!

He wagged and wiggled

And then climbed out

And carefullly jiggled

Small wet wings

That grew as they dried.

He’d turned to a butterfly

Inside!

5. Caterpillar, Caterpillar  (tune: Motor Boat, Motor Boat)

Caterpillar, caterpillar, long and slow.

Caterpillar, caterpillar eat and grow.

Caterpillar, caterpillar close your eyes.

Caterpillar, caterpillar change your size.

Caterpillar, caterpillar where’d you go?

Teaching Concepts for Fingerplays

1. Caterpillars

“Let’s go to sleep,” the caterpillars said. (wiggle fingers)

So each tucked itself into a chrysalis bed (make fist)

When they awaken by and by (open hand one finger at a time)

Each one will be a butterfly (hooking thumbs of outstretched hands together)

2. A Caterpillar Crawled

A caterpillar crawled to the top of a tree. (raising left arm and moving fingers of right hand up it)

“I think I’ll take a nap,” said he. (resting fingers)

So under the leaf he began to creep (moving fingers under open left hand)

He spun a chrysalis, and he fell asleep (wrapping left hand around fingers)

For two long weeks, he slept in that bed

Then Spring came along, and she said,

“Wake up! Wake up! You sleepy head” (shaking pointer finger up and down)

Out from the leaf he did cry (hooking thumbs of outstretched hands together)

“Look, now I’m a butterfly.”

3. Planting Time (tune:Row, Row, Row Your Boat)

Dig, dig, dig the earth (make digging motion)

Then you plant your seeds (pretend to drop seeds)

A gentle rain (Flutter fingers down)

And bright sunshine (Circle arms above head)

Will help your flowers grow (Hold one arm parallel to ground and move other arm up behind it with fingers extended to represent a flower growing)

4. The Fuzzy Caterpillar (tune: The Eensy Weensy Spider)

The fuzzy caterpillar

Curled upon a leaf,

Spun her little chrysalis

And then fell asleep.

While she was sleeping,

She dreamed that she could fly,

And later when she woke up

She was a butterfly!