B is for Butterfly!

This week we learned that “B is for Butterfly!” I am excited to say that by the end of the week Sadie had both the letter name and the "b" sound down confidently! I'm so glad that she's not only enjoying our activities, but that they're working.

The resources we used this week were…

Songs:

CanTeach

Videos:

ABC Mouse 'The Letter B Song'
Storybots 'B is for Boogie'
Hippothesis 'Metamorphosis'
Elmo's Butterfly Song

And, here's what we did...

Monday:

We got three books from the library this week: Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert, Little Einsteins: Butterfly Suits by Marcy Kelman, and Fly, Monarch! Fly by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace.

We already owned The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. It’s one of Sadie’s favorites, and we read it every night this week.

We did our letter introduction after getting home from the library, and worked on her Alphabet Book mosaic after her nap. She chose the colors, ripped the paper, and put the glue on the butterfly. I helped her keep the paper in the lines. 

Tuesday:

Every toddler loves stickers, and Sadie is no exception. When I found large butterfly stickers at the local dollar store, I knew we had to do something with them. We used the stickers to create a “B” butterfly garden! I taped construction paper to the wall to create a scene for Sadie to fill. She shrieked with happiness with every butterfly she added to the sky. After Sadie filled the sky with butterflies, I filled the garden with “flowers.” I allowed Sadie to choose the flower colors, and I drew “B flowers” in the garden. With every upper and lowercase “B” I drew, we yelled the letters name. Older children can get practice writing the letter by taking turns with you writing the “B’s” in the garden. We left the “B” butterfly garden up all week, and used it every day to practice recognizing and saying “B” and “butterfly.”

Wednesday:

We used laminating paper and tissue paper to create a suncatcher on Wednesday. The instructions are detailed in the attached lesson plan, but it was super simple. Sadie loved adding the tissue paper pieces to the sticky laminating paper—it was almost like stickers! We hung her suncatcher on the glass door, and she loved looking at it all week. Whenever we would pass by the front door, we would use our fingers to trace the letter “B” on the suncatcher.

Thursday:

We had other plans on Thursday, so we didn’t get to play with our food this week. The plan was to create a butterfly with her lunch. I planned to quarter her peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and use the quarters as wings. A stalk of celery (with peanut butter!) would act as the body, a strawberry would be the head, and pretzel sticks would be the antenna. If you try this, please send me a picture! I’d love to see it.

Friday:

Friday we created butterfly wands. I bent two pipe cleaners into “B’s,” and we practiced saying “B! I then let Sadie glue the “B’s” together to create a butterfly. She glued the butterfly to a wooden skewer (found at the dollar store, of course), and then glued pom-poms of her choice to create a body. These were so quick and simple that we made a few. She liked to make the butterflies fly by running around and waving the wands around. I didn't take any pictures of her doing this project, but I took a few process photos after she went to bed.

Weekend Fun:

We visited the butterfly garden at the botanical gardens this weekend. Sadie loved seeing all of the real butterflies up close. She was even able to touch a few! We stopped at the garden’s splash pad on the way out, and she was in toddler heaven. If you have one nearby… go!

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Download the lesson plan here!

If you’re starting the project, please let me know! I love to hear from you. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to use the comment section below or email me at janiewhitetaylor@gmail.com. I’d love to help you make the project work for your little one!

Happy learning to you and your future nerds!