Preschool Storytime: Flutterby Butterfly!

Preschool Storytime: Flutterby Butterfly

A celebration of individual differences, life-cycle, nature and change. Includes fiction and non-fiction and sign language songs.  More books, lyrics, and craft ideas at
  https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Caterpillars%20%26%20Butterflies

Bob and Otto – Robert & Nick Bruel  (Otto the worm is saddened when his friend Bob the caterpillar becomes a butterfly until Bob reassures him that his role in digging through the earth is critical in this story which beautifully combines earth science and the power of friendship.) 

Sign Language Song: "Look up Look Down"  -from Pick Me Up: Fun Songs for Learning Signs – Robert Berg, et. all 

From Caterpillar to Butterfly -- Deborah Heligman (describes the metamorphosis through the eyes of a classroom hatching butterflies)

Flannel: Color Butterflies (color IDs) - text (and lyrics to songs that follow) at: https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2013/12/preschool-storytime-flutterby-butterfly.html

Song: Roly-Poly Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle (reinforcing days of the week and counting, talked about how Eric Carle used colored tissue paper to make his collage papers)

Song: Life of a Butterfly 

If at First You Do Not See - Ruth Brown (kids practiced close observation with this clever  book -- vegetation becomes faces when the pages are turned upside down...possibly inspired by the works of the 16th c. Italian painter Guiseppe Arcimboldo)

Sign Language Song: "Let's Take a Little Walk") -from Pick Me Up: Fun Songs for Learning Signs 

Waiting for Wings -- Lois Ehlert (different sized pages and beautiful collage illustrations reinforce the butterfly life cycle. A musical version is on the Scholastic DVD Singalong Stories, great to act out with scarves).

Art idea: have the children make nature collages inspired by the books "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "Waiting for Wings"

6/5/2025 The Children's Corner Preschool

School Age S.T.E.A.M.: Flutterby Butterfly!

School Age: Flutterby Butterfly A celebration of individual differences, life-cycle, nature and change. Combines fiction and non-fiction, and sign language songs. More ideas at https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Caterpillars%20%26%20Butterflies

Bob and Otto – Robert & Nick Bruel  (Otto the worm is saddened when his friend Bob the caterpillar becomes a butterfly until Bob reassures him that his role in digging through the earth is critical in this story which beautifully combines earth science and the power of friendship.) Booktalked: Bubba & Trixie – Lisa Campbell Ernst – (An adventuresome ladybug with a damaged wing who cannot fly befriends an apprehensive caterpillar and helps him learn to enjoy life and be happy with what he is and what he becomes.)

Sign Language Song: "Look up Look Down"  -from Pick Me Up: Fun Songs for Learning Signs – Robert Berg, et. all 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle (reinforcing days of the week and counting, talked about how Eric Carle used colored tissue paper to make his collage papers)

If at First You Do Not See - Ruth Brown (kids practiced close observation with this clever  book -- vegetation becomes faces when the pages are turned upside down...possibly inspired by the works of the 16th c. Italian painter Guiseppe Arcimboldo)

Sign Language Song: "Let's Take a Little Walk") -from Pick Me Up: Fun Songs for Learning Signs 

A Butterfly is Patient 595.789 AST (wonderful book in the An Egg is Quiet and A Seed is Sleepy series) Because this group today was on the younger side, we skipped a lot of the detailed info here but there is a lot of great info. – e.g. the difference between a chrysalis and a cocoon - the latter is spun of silk, the former is a kind of exoskeleton formed from the caterpillar's skin; also that butterflies can fly a mile in 3 minutes (faster than a human can run)

DVD: Waiting for Wings -- Lois Ehlert A musical version is on the Scholastic DVD Singalong Stories, we acted out with scarves).

Did some of the art projects featured here. https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2013/12/art-science-flutterby-butterfly.html

Additional art idea: have the children make nature collages inspired by the books "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "Waiting for Wings"

5/28/2025 Clarence Dillon Library