Crawling Creatures - Butterflies!

This week Fir group focused on an insect similar to the dragonfly - the butterfly.

The children learned that like a dragonfly, a butterfly is a flying insect. Below are some fun butterfly facts they learned so far:

• A butterfly’s lifecycle is made up of four parts, egg, larva (caterpillars), pupa (chrysalis) and adult. (The children learned the big word, metamorphosis! We also watch a video that mesmerized the children: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AUeM8MbaIk)
  
• Most caterpillars are plant eaters (herbivores).
  
• Butterflies have a head, thorax, abdomen, six legs, 2 antennae, 6 legs and 4 wings. 
  
• Most butterflies feed on nectar from flowers.
  
• Butterflies have taste receptors on their feet.
  
• Butterflies sip nectar and other liquids through their proboscis.

To imitate how butterflies feed on nectar, the children each made their own flower and placed a bowl of "nectar" (honey water) in the middle of the flower. Then as we sang "Oh, We are Going Flying", they flew around their flowers and sipped the "nectar" through their "proboscis" (a straw). 

The children enjoyed flying so much that we decided to make butterfly wings for art. We talked about the different patterns on the wings and how they are beautiful examples of symmetry (I explained with one side of the body match the wings on the opposite side of the body - a mirror image).