Explore the life cycle of butterflies with a fluttery mobile. How can you attract these beautiful, fragile creatures to your garden?

• 1.

  Did you know that there are about 28,000 species of butterflies? Learn more about these beautiful and unique creatures. Find out how to attract them to a backyard habitat. Research what a butterfly house looks like and why it is built that way. Here’s one way to make a decorative butterfly house to show what you learned.

• 2.

  Build a butterfly house. Sketch a butterfly house on construction paper with Crayola® Erasable Colored Pencils. If you make a mistake or change your mind, they erase easily! Color both sides of your butterfly house with Crayola Slick Stix. e intense colors are so smooth! Cut out the thin, narrow butterfly openings in the house with Crayola Scissors. Punch a hole in the top and tie ribbon to hang your mobile.

• 3.

  Create butterflies. On wax paper, outline several butterflies. Color them with Slick Stix. Cut them out. Wrap each wing around a colored pencil to curl. Attach butterflies to their snack shack with a Crayola Glue Stick.

Standards

• LA: Read with sufficient fluency and accuracy to support comprehension.
• LA: Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
• LA: Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
• LA: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
• SCI: Ask questions about the natural and human-built worlds.
• SCI: Construct drawings or diagrams as representations of events or systems.
• VA: Use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.
• VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.

Adaptations

• Take students on a nature walk in and around their school grounds to observe the butterflies that populate the area. If digital cameras are available, have students take some pictures of the butterflies. When arriving back in the classroom, divide students into small groups and challenge them to identify what types of butterflies they observed, using the digital photographs as a guide.
• In small groups, students research the life cycle of a butterfly. Using Crayola Colored Pencils, students sketch each stage and write 2-3 sentences describing each stage.
• How are butterflies and moths similar? How are they different? Students work collaboratively in small groups to research these questions. Using a chart, groups compare and contrast these two Lepidoptera.
• Individual students research a single species of butterfly and become the class expert for that species. During the research process, students document where one would find the species thriving and locate that place on a world map. Students will create a 3-D model of the species and place it inside a diorama that reflects an appropriate habitat. Students organize research and prepare an oral presentation for classmates.