“The Butterfly Effect”

Nisha’s 3 & 4-Year-Old Morning Lab

Spring 2021
By: Teachers Hannah and Morgan. Ellie,
Grayson, Charlie, Brecken, Ledger and
Jade.
 Charlie stated: “Wow, I love
caterpillars. I find them in
my backyard, and they are
slimy when I touch them.
When we first started our Sometimes they are soft
too.”
investigation, the children liked
to talk about their siblings and
their relationships they have
with them. Each of the children
in our class have at least one
sibling. We then went on to ask
them what types of things they
like to do with their siblings.
Some things that we talked
about were digging for worms,
watching TV and playing
outside. We then asked what
they like to do as a family.

They all mentioned a lot

about the zoo. It then led to
zoo animals. The children
discussed all the animals
that they would see at the
zoo. This led to them
talking about the butterfly
house. The children were
super excited when talking
about butterflies and all of
the different colors they can
be.
To introduce
butterflies,
we read a variety of
different books
during
small group.
On our first day of discussing butterflies,
we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric
Carle. We incorporated this book into our
investigation because it teaches readers
about the days of the week, counting,
nutrition of a caterpillar and the
life cycle of a butterfly.

Brecken asked;
“What is the
difference
between a
chrysalis and a
cocoon?”
 On our second day of
investigations, we focused
deeper on the life cycle of the
butterfly. To focus on this, we
read The Life Cycle of a Butterfly
by Torran Anderson. We also put
together a puzzle that showed
the complete life
cycle of a
butterfly.

Ellie asked; “So, where do they

lay their eggs at?”
Once we read about butterflies, it was time
to put our knowledge to work. We began
creating our own caterpillar. The materials
were chosen by the children. They chose
paper for the bodies, pipe cleaners for
their antennas, google eyes for the eyes,
and markers to create the legs and
pattern of their caterpillar. The
children each picked a name for their caterpillar.
Next, we fed our caterpillars so they could start to
grow. We did this by taking cut out pieces of food
printed on paper and glued
it onto our caterpillar’s Our Caterpillar/Butterfly Names:
stomach. The children
Grayson- Carrie
wanted to ‘feed’ their
caterpillar the food that we Ellie- Cheetah

Ledger- Daddy Johnson

Brecken- Nothing

Jade- Sparkles

“I can’t believe how Charlie- Apple

hungry my
caterpillar is. He is
eating all of the fruit
and vegetables!”
–Charlie
 read about in The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The diet
for our caterpillars included, oranges, strawberries,
raspberries, lettuce, and their eggshell. We then
added another piece of paper to our caterpillars’
body to represent the caterpillar growing from
eating.

Once their caterpillars were fed,

we watched a video on how
caterpillars shed their skin. To
represent this on our caterpillars,
we used mod podge and tissue paper to paint onto
our caterpillars. The next day, we peeled the tissue
paper off of our caterpillars using water and
recognized what it looks like
when a caterpillar shed
their skin. Ledger asked,
“What
happens to
their skin
when it falls
off?”
 Once our caterpillars had shed
their skin, we recognized that it
was almost time for our
caterpillars to begin making their
cocoons. In order for our
caterpillars to do this, Ledger said,
“They need a leaf to hang their
cocoon from.” We printed out leaves,
colored and cut them out for our
caterpillars. They wanted their leaves to be
colorful so their caterpillars would be
happy when making their cocoon on them.
 Once we created leaves for our
caterpillars, we decided that we
wanted to see the different types of
butterflies that our caterpillars
could turn in to. We made this into
a matching game for the children
to work together and recognize
different patterns, similarities and
differences of each butterfly. After
playing the matching game, we
chose what butterfly we want
ours to look like and identified
those butterflies’ closer underneath magnifying
glasses. Each child chose their butterflies by
identifying the different colors and discussing each
of the colors on their butterfly.
 Once we discovered what we wanted our
butterflies to look like, we decided it was time for
our caterpillars to start making their cocoons. To
represent this, we punched holes into our caterpillars
and the leaves and strung them with string to
connect them. We recognized that a caterpillar has to
hang on a leaf to start building its cocoon. Once we
hung our caterpillars from the leaves, we wrapped
ribbon around our caterpillars to begin the
transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly.
 One day during
our
investigation
groups, we sat
down in a circle
and discussed
everything we
had learned
about
butterflies and
what we know
about them.

Brecken Grayson said, Ellie said,

said, “Caterpillars “Butterflies
“Butterflies turn into come out of
fly south to butterflies.” a cocoon.”
stay warm.”
 While we waited for our caterpillars to turn into
butterflies, we printed off the shape of the butterfly
and started coloring our butterflies. We looked back
at the butterflies we chose during our matching
game and made our own butterflies look similar to
the ones we chose. We glued eyes and antennas onto
our butterflies. We discussed what these parts of the
butterfly do and why a butterfly needs them.

Ledger said, Grayson

“My butterfly
said, “Carrie
needs eyes so
he can see looks so
where he is beautiful.”
flying.”

Jade asked,
“What are
antennas?”
 We were very interested in the
different species of butterflies. We watched videos
on Monarch Butterflies, Royal Blue Butterflies and the
largest living butterfly in the world, the Queen
Alexandra Birdwing. We learned where each of these
butterflies can be found and what they eat. We
learned that Monarch butterflies can fly over 50
miles a day during migration.

Brecken said,
“Monarch
butterflies
must get
tired if they
have to fly to
Mexico!”
After we researched
more about different
butterflies, we
realized that our
butterflies did not
have a home. In our
videos we watched,
we saw that all
different types of
butterflies live in very
different areas. In
order for us to
incorporate a
butterfly’s habitat in
our classroom, we
took a trip outside
and searched for items in nature that we thought our
butterflies might need/like in their habitat. We found
feathers, leaves, grass, sticks, acorns, moss and
flowers.
As we began wrapping up our investigation, we
grabbed a bunch of materials and created our own
butterflies with those materials. We used wire, beads,
artificial fruit, lids, clothespins, straws and popsicle
sticks. The children had a lot of freedom with this
activity and created their version of a butterfly.

Ledger said, “I
gave my butterfly
antennae’s so he
can hear.”

What the Children Learned

Throughout the Investigation:
The children learned throughout our investigation
that they would much rather work as a team then
independently. They created multiple different
 materials together to be used for all of their
butterflies. The children learned the importance of
working together to achieve one goal. The children
used communication and language skills to discuss
what their butterflies need to survive. They also
brought their own ideas into the investigation by
choosing materials to make what they think
represents a butterfly at the end of our investigation.
Their science/inquiry capabilities were improved by
the amount of research and projects we had to
complete before our butterfly was complete. The
children increased their social and emotional skills,
as they interacted and played with each other
throughout the investigation. We increased our
teamworking skills when working together to create
a habitat for all of our butterflies to live in together.

What Teacher Morgan and Teacher

Hannah Learned Throughout the
Investigation
We Learned:
 We learned a lot as teachers throughout
this investigation. Neither of us have done
anything like this before We were both
intrigued by the information, we were able
to gather about butterflies. We learned a
lot about the children’s interests and how
to incorporate these interests into our
small group activities. As teachers, we
learned the importance of detail. We
learned this through the butterfly cycle and
creating our own butterflies. We also
learned how to incorporate different
teaching methods through a variety of
different activities. Along with the children.
Early Learning Guidelines Touched on Throughout This
Investigation:
Approaches to Learning (AL): Curiosity, Information-Seeking, and Eagerness
• Goal AL-1: Children demonstrate curiosity and eagerness and express interest in the world around them.
• Goal AL-2: Children actively seek to understand the world around them in play and everyday tasks.
Approaches to Learning (AL): Initiative, Effort, Engagement, and Persistence
• Goal AL-3: Children demonstrate initiative and effort in play and everyday tasks.
• Goal AL-4: Children are engaged and maintain focus in play and everyday tasks.
• Goal AL-5: Children persist at challenging activities in play and everyday tasks.
Approaches to Learning (AL): Risk-Taking, Problem-Solving, Flexibility, and Resiliency
• Goal AL-6: Children are willing to try new and challenging experiences in play and everyday tasks.
• Goal AL-7: Children use a variety of strategies to solve problems in play and everyday tasks.
Approaches to Learning (AL): Play and Imagination
• Goal AL-8: Children engage in increasingly complex play.

Social and Emotional Development (SED): Developing a Positive Sense of Self

• Goal SED-1: Children demonstrate a positive sense of themselves as unique and capable individuals in play and
everyday tasks.
Social and Emotional Development (SED): Developing Relationships
• Goal SED-2: Children form relationships and interact positively with familiar adults in play and everyday tasks.
• Goal SED-3: Children form relationships and interact positively with other children in play and everyday tasks.
Social and Emotional Development (SED): Self-Regulation and Pro-Social Behaviors
• Goal SED-4: Children demonstrate self-regulation, pro-social behaviors, and participate cooperatively as members
of a group in play and everyday tasks.
• Goal SED-5: Children demonstrate an ability to identify and regulate their emotions in play and everyday tasks.
• Goal SED-6: Children recognize and respond to the needs and feelings of others in play and everyday tasks.

Communication, Language and Literacy (CLL): Communicating and Oral Language Development
• Goal CLL-1: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children successfully communicate for
multiple purposes.
• Goal CLL-2: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children speak clearly and use the grammar
of their home language.
• Goal CLL-3: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children understand and use an ever-
expanding vocabulary.
Communication, Language and Literacy (CLL): Foundations for Reading
• Goal CLL-4: Through their explorations, play and social interactions, children develop interest, motivation, and
appreciation for literacy-based materials and activities.
• Goal CLL-5: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children comprehend, use, and begin to
reflect on and analyze information in books and other media.
Communication, Language and Literacy (CLL): Foundations for Writing
• Goal CLL-9: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children use writing and drawing as means
of communication.

Cognitive Development (CD): Construction of Knowledge: Thinking and Reasoning

• Goal CD-1: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions children use their senses to discover and
construct knowledge about the world around them.
• Goal CD-2: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions children recall information and apply it to
new situations and problems.
• Goal CD-3: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions children demonstrate the ability to think about
their own thinking: reasoning, taking perspectives, and making decisions.
Cognitive Development (CD): Mathematical Thinking and Expression
• Goal CD-4: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children count with understanding and use
numbers to tell how many, describe order, and compare.
Cognitive Development (CD): Scientific Exploration and Knowledge
• Goal CD-8: As a result of their explorations and participation in simple investigations through play, children
observe, describe, and demonstrate respect for living things, the environment, and the physical world.
• Goal CD-9: As a result of their explorations and participation in simple investigations through play, children
demonstrate their ability to use scientific inquiry by observing, manipulating objects, asking questions, making
predictions, and developing generalizations.
Cognitive Development (CD): Social Studies, Family and Community Connections
• Goal CD-10: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children demonstrate an understanding of
relationships, roles, and what it means to be a participating member of their families and the diverse
groups/communities they belong to.
• Goal CD-11: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions children identify and demonstrate
appreciation of similarities and differences between themselves and others.

Health and Physical Development (HPD): Motor Development

• Goal HPD-5: Children engage in play and experiences to develop muscle control and hand-eye coordination to
manipulate objects and work with tools.