Simple Butterfly Lifecycle Activity for Preschoolers and Kindergarteners

Oct 5, 2023 | DIY Crafts & Activities, Educational Content | 0 comments

On our learning journey, my girls are now at a place where they are writing their names and making markings that have meaning to them based on what they have learned so far about written language.

Did you know that little ones begin their journey to becoming writers long before they can write a letter or spell a word? With some assistance, our little ones can create beautiful stories with pictures. This stage is called Emergent Writing. Emergent writing is when children begin to understand that writing is a way in which we communicate.

When your little ones are at the pre-emergent or emergent stage of writing, as parents and educators, we can work to guide them in the following ways:

Work with your children to scan/observe picture books to show them ways in which authors and illustrators used pictures to tell their Stories.
Discuss the drawings that were created by your child to express that you understand the message they are conveying. Also, share what they can do to improve and make their messages clearer and readable to others.
Provide opportunities for them to practice whatever you share with them.
Help your little ones convey what they have learned from themed lessons, from a walk or a visit to a special place, into pictures you can both understand. For example, you can have your child draw a picture of him/herself standing surrounded by flowers to show they visited a garden.

The drawings your little one is able to do not need to be perfect. My littles are at the place where they are drawing heads with hands and feet attached. We do a lot of directed drawing at this stage so that we can discuss what a body really looks like.

What is Directed Drawing?

Directed drawing is a step-by-step guide given by a teacher or parent to a child/children on how to draw something. Directions can also be given on paper or by a video tutorial.

Doing directed drawing with littles for me is a win-win! In the classroom, I used directed drawings to enhance the listening skills of my students.

Questions/conversation prompts you can use to guide your little ones as they try to communicate a message through drawings.

What happened first?
Where did you go?
What is that?
Who was there?
What happened next?
Then what?
What did you see?
I wonder what will happen next?
Finally, in the end…
How did you feel?

A while back we were learning about spiders, bugs and insects. So here is a simple journal activity in which the girls were able to share what they learned about the lifecycle of a butterfly by drawing.

I intentionally chose the lifecycle of the butterfly because they are familiar with the stages involved in the lifecycle of a butterfly because they love the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar and would be confident to engage in the drawing process related to something they already had prior knowledge of and are quite interested in.

One child drawing the first step to demonstrate her understanding of the butterfly lifecycle.

What you will need to put this activity together:

Learning journal/Paper
Construction paper
Markers
Pencils
Stickers
Crayons

This activity is pretty straightforward to put together.

When your child has completed a drawing, you can try the tip below:

Let them point around the picture and explain what is happening. Be mindful that the aim of this exercise is not to get your child to list or label things but to learn storytelling language. For example, your child might say butterfly, eggs, leaf. Ultimately, you want your child to speak in sentences telling what happened first, next, then and finally.

Example: First, the butterfly lays eggs on a leaf.

Next, caterpillars hatch from the eggs.

Then, the caterpillar eats leaves and goes into a chrysalis.

Finally, an adult butterfly comes out of the chrysalis.

One Child drawing to show the final step in the butterfly lifecycle.

Some prompts you can use:

Your picture is telling a story. Can you tell what happened first, next, then and finally?
Your picture looks like it is teaching something. Can you tell me about it?
What’s over here?
What is that?
You have so much information in your picture. Can you tell me what you drew?

The children were very proud of their work when the activity was completed. We discussed the butterfly’s lifecycle twice because each twin wanted to talk about what they drew. While they shared what they learned, I used a marker to label their pictures for them.

This Activity was great for:

Developing oral language skills
Developing fine motor skills
Developing Confidence
Understanding the sequence of events
Developing Spacial awareness
Recalling information
Vocabulary Building

We do hope you find this activity useful.

Check out our YouTube Video on Bugs From A-Z Below!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us by sending us a message or visiting us @learning.stepbystep on Instagram, Learning Step By Step on Facebook and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for educational resources that will help you and your littles on their learning journey as they continue to Learn Step By Step!

Thank you for being here!

Kimberlee and the Learning Step By Step Team.