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Home » Preschool Learning » Whole Body Butterfly Life Cycle

Whole Body Butterfly Life Cycle

Post by Rebecca Reid 6 Comments

Strawberry simply loves butterflies right now! As we prepared a report about butterflies for our recent project fair, we took the chance to act out the parts of the butterfly life cycle. This whole body gross motor play is just how she learns! I know she’ll not forget the details we discussed: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly with antennae and proboscis. These are now ingrained in her memory. Plus, it was tons of fun to act out!
Use a party blower as a proboscis in this whole body butterfly life cycle gross motor imagination game.

What You Need for the Gross Motor Butterfly Life Cycle

Here is what we used to act out the butterfly life cycle.

  • laundry basket (egg)
  • green towel (a leaf to eat)
  • blanket (chrysalis)
  • headband and two pipe cleaners (antennae)
  • fairy wings (or otherwise)
  • party blower (proboscis)
  • construction paper flower

The party blower is super important as this is the most fun part of being a butterfly…you get to flit around and eat nectar! So, it would help to make some pretend flowers for the butterflies to eat.

Acting Out the Butterfly Life Cycle

As we acted out the butterfly life cycle over and over again, even my little baby could not hesitate to get in the fun. She did not want to come out of her egg. She wanted to stay all cozy in there.

Even my baby wanted to take a turn pretending to be a baby caterpillar in an egg in our whole body butterfly life cycle gross motor imagination game.

Once Strawberry was hatched, however, she was always eager to turn around and eat her egg. We learned that the caterpillars eat their eggs before they even start looking for leaves. Our green blanket was the surface where the egg was, so she ate that too, once the egg/laundry basket was out of the way!Caterpillars eat their eggs and then green leaves after they are born. Strawberry wanted to make sure she did the same in our butterfly life cycle gross motor imagination game.

Then it was time for Strawberry to go into her chrysalis. She loved that I picked her all the way up to completely wrap her in the blanket. She tried to put her wings, antennae (headband) and proboscis (party blower) on while under there. It’s not so easy.

She's wrapped up in a chrysalis awaiting the moment she can burst out as a butterfly in our butterfly life cycle gross motor game. (She's getting her antennae, wings, and proboscis ready.)

Then it was time to flit over to the flower. Strawberry loved this fact that we learned: butterflies taste a flower with their feet to see if they will like it!In our whole body butterfly life cycle gross motor imagination game, Strawberry pretends she is a butterfly tasting the flower with her feet.

And then, of course, it was time to use the party blower to suck up the nectar. I love how this shot was somewhat in motion.Use a party blower as a proboscis in this whole body butterfly life cycle gross motor imagination game.

We acted out the butterfly life cycle at least three full times. the shots are somewhat blurry because, well, I can’t get my five year old to go slowly and sit still! This was perfect for learning about the butterfly life cycle. She’ll never forget it!

Like this post? Pin it for later!Super fun whole body butterfly life cycle gross motor imagination game! A laundry basket is our caterpillar egg. Once we hatch, we eat the green leaf, then wrap up in our chrysalis blanket. Once we come out, we're butterflies! Of course, we needed the fairy wings and antennae headband as well. The party blower is the proboscis.

See more A-Z Play at Home ideas for the letter B below.The A-Z Play at Home Series

B is for Whole Body Butterfly Life Cycle and…

B is for Button Bead Stacking from Nadia at Teach Me Mommy

B is for Beach Party from Erin at Bambini Travel

B is for Bottle Top Stamps from The Gingerbread House

B is for Bug Hunt by Erin at Play Learn Everyday

B is for Bean Color Sort by Emma at Adventures and Play

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Check out this list of preschool activities and crafts from a to z!Preschool Activities from A to Z A Day in the Life Homeschooling a First Grader and a Toddler Review Area and Perimeter with a Flower Garden Plan Human Body and Nutrition Activities Sort the pictures on each flower into the correct word family flower pot. We used mini-flower pots to make this word family picture sort even more hands-on for spring.Flower-Themed Word Family Picture Sort

Filed Under: Preschool Learning Tagged With: #justplayathome, b is for ..., butterflies, butterfly life cycle, gross motor, hands-on

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