The Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Sara Thomas
Subject area: Life science Grade Level: Kindergarten Lesson duration: 45 minutes

Standard
Living things include anything that is alive or has ever been alive. Living things have specific characteristics and traits. Living things grow and reproduce. Living things are found almost everywhere in the world. There are somewhat different kinds in different places.

Learning objective/Outcomes
First, after discussion I hope that students will understand that there are many different living things on our earth, not just us. I also hope that they learn the different processes a butterfly/caterpillar goes through by doing hands on work. I also hope to make the connection with the students of how living things grow and how all living things need food to grow.

Goal
My goal is to keep students engaged by using different kind of techniques such as visual, auditory, and kinetic.

Lesson Summary
First we will have some discussion on what we already know about living things and caterpillars. I will then read a story about a caterpillar who eats and eats to grow and then when he grows he wraps himself up and turns into a butterfly. This will be for my auditory learners because they will be able to sit and listen to a book being read. It will also be for my visual learners because they can see the pictures and they illustrations in this book are beautiful. Next we will transition to our seats where every student will create their own life cycle of the butterfly or caterpillar. To wrap it up will watch a short video while I evaluate.

Materials
Book- "The Hungry Caterpillar", construction paper, beads, kidney beans, pipe cleaners, crayons, and smart board

Instruction procedures:

1. First we will have a short discussion. I will ask questions like "Does anyone know what happens to a caterpillar when it grows up?" "How does a caterpillar grow to be big?" "Do we need food to be big?" 5 minutes 2. I will then read the book, "The Hungry Caterpillar" 5-10 minutes 3. We will then transition to our desk. In order to create structure I will dismiss them from the reading rug by group/table. Therefore things will not be so hectic. 4. After, I will pass a piece of construction paper to every child where we will fold it into fourths(They might need help with this so I will demonstrate how to on the smart board and then walk around to help) 5. In our first square we will draw a leaf and I will pass out a bead. We will glue the bead on the paper and I will explain how this is our egg. 6. I will explain that out of this egg comes a caterpillar, so in our 2nd square we draw a caterpillar. 7. I will then ask "what should we draw next?" From the story the kids should know the caterpillar wraps itself up into a pupa/cocoon. I will pass out a kidney bean to glue on and this will act as our cocoon. 8. In our final square the children will create a butterfly by gluing down a paper clean and drawing wings.

We will watch the video on our smart board of the butterfly's life cycle. The video is basically a time line so for example, I will pause it on the part that says, "First, we have an egg." And ask the class what happens next. I will be able to get a sense of if they learned the material.

Evaluation