Family Fun, Recipes, & Healthy Living
Izzy and I love books and Eric Carle books have alway been a favorites of mine. This morning we read A House for Hermit Crab. Izzy loved the story so much I asked her, “What if I make an activity to go along with the …
With Valentine’s Day right around the corner I thought it might be fun to share some free downloads and ideas for you all with conversation heart candy. Izzy had a blast working on math skills & problem solving. If you enjoy playful learning these are …
Activity 1
Print out and discuss the anatomy of a butterfly with your child. Allow them to color the parts as you name them. For younger children, have them practice writing the letters for the word butterfly. Say each letter and say the letter sound(s) each letter makes. For older children use this opportunity to have them practice spelling BUTTERFLY. Cover the word at the top of the paper and ask them to fill in each blank spot with a letter to make the word Butterfly.
Once you have finished working on the butterfly, you can read the facts listed about the butterfly. If your child can’t read, you or an older child can read to them. For older children, have them write in a journal their favorite facts about the butterfly.
Butterfly-Anatomy-busylittleizzy-LessonActivity 2
Go outside and explore nature. Collect sticks, stones, acorns and more. Discuss the anatomy of a butterfly and create one with your nature finds. You can also then create the butterfly life cycle to go along with your butterfly. Refer to the butterfly anatomy PDF from activity 1, if needed. Click here to learn more about this activity. For older children, have them write in their journal what they used to create their butterfly outside. For children still working on letters and words, have them write words and or draw pictures to share what they used to create their butterfly.
Activity 3
Use modeling clay or play dough to create a butterfly. Click here for our favorite homemade play dough recipe. Discuss the body parts of a butterfly. Refer to the butterfly anatomy PDF from activity 1 if needed. We found it easiest to start with the 3 main body parts, the head, thorax and abdomen. After that let the child chose what body part to add next.
Activity 4
Use drawing materials to create a butterfly in a journal. For younger children they can work on writing their letters as you support them in the spelling of the word butterfly. For older children, have them write down each word as shown in the PDF from activity 1. Give them the choice to draw a line to each part, color each part the same color as the word for each body part or even allow them to number each part and put that number next to each anatomy word they write. Refer to the butterfly anatomy PDF from activity 1 if needed.
Activity 5
Butterflies have bilateral symmetry. Teach your child about symmetry with this fun activity. Help, model or encourage your child to paint a butterfly body (head, thorax & abdomen). Now ask them to paint a forewing and a hindwing on only 1 side. Now fold the paper in half and open up to reveal a symmetrical butterfly. Discuss symmetry and what that word means.
Click here for more butterfly and insect learning activities.
Happy Learning!
XO Eryka
I linked a bunch of fun and free printable life cycles below. These are great for you to talk through with your child and then allow them some independent coloring time. How is this educational? Coloring is important because it helps build hand strength & …
This post is sponsored by Juicy Juice, however as always, all opinions remain my own. We are so thankful for the teachers Izzy had last school year. Although the year ended differently than originally planned, the teachers did what they could to ease the transition …
This post may contain some affiliate links. With a purchase from the links a small commission can be made. This helps me to keep this blog running and bring more fun educational activities like this to the blog for you.
Izzy and I were in TJ Maxx walking around, being Maxxinsitas! And I have to say, TJ Maxx is like a Target to me. I always find fun things that I didn’t go to the store for. Which brings me to the heart pasta. Izzy spotted it and asked me if we could buy it. I immediately thought of all the fun and educational things we could do with the pasta and said yes. I hope you enjoy all the activities I listed below.
Pasta Sorting
What you need: fun and colorful pasta & shoe bin
Some different pastas & bins linked here
Sorting is an important math skill for young children to work on. Basic sorting requires the ability to sort based on one difference. In this case, all of the pasta is the same shape, hearts. The one difference we are sorting is the color. If there were big and small hearts, all different colors that would allow for 2 differences when sorting. They could sort all of the big green and little green hearts in piles and so on and so forth. NOTE: A child must master sorting by 1 difference before they can move towards the ability to think of sorting by 2 or more.
Pasta Patterns
What you need: fun and colorful pasta
Some different pastas linked here
Patterns are another math skill that are important for the foundations of math concepts. Start with introducing AB patterns to your child. Also keep in mind that young children need to hear the pattern 3 times before they can tell you what is coming next. Example: “Green, purple, green, purple, green, purple. What comes next?”
Once your child can do this, work with them on creating their own AB pattern. Add extra fun by having your child string the pasta as they make the pattern. This is great for fine motor and coordination practice.
If your child is an AB pattern pro, you can move on to more advance patterns such as ABC, AAB, AABB and ABAB.
Pasta Letters
What you need: fun and colorful pasta
Some different pastas linked here
Izzy is almost 4 and we have been doing a lot of work on writing letters and letter sounds. If your child is at this level, go ahead an have them create letters. For beginners you can create a letter with pasta and ask the child to copy you. Break it down slowly for them. Example: For letter L you would say, “We are making a big line down.” As you say that, make your big line down and encourage your child to help you or create their own next to you. Then tell them the next step, “Now we need a little line across, at the bottom.” Again show them how you are creating a line at the bottom to finish making letter L. You can again encourage them to build it with you are create their own next to you.
Pasta Counting
What you need: fun and colorful pasta & shoe bin
Some different pastas & bins linked here
Pasta counting, pretty self explanatory, right? This is something you can incorporate while doing some of the other activities. I listed a few ideas below to better explain what I mean.
After creating letter “L” as noted in the example for the pasta letter activity, ask your child how many pastas they think were used to create the letter.
Once you have finished sorting with your child, count each pile together. “How many red ones do we have?” You can even estimate together which pile has more, based on how they look. Then together count to see which pile has the biggest number and which has the smallest.
After a pattern has been made, count the pasta to see how many you used in the pattern.
Pasta Weighing
What you need: measuring cups1/2 cup & 1 cup, fun and colorful pasta & balance scale.
All linked here
Have your child fill each measuring cup with pasta. Then estimate which cup will weigh more. Now weigh/balance the pasta. Have your child fill the 1/2 cup again and add to the other 1/2 cup. Discuss how 1/2 and 1/2 is the same as 1 whole cup. This is a great intro to weighing and fractions.
I hope you all have a blast with these activities!
XO Eryka
I’ll be adding to and editing this post as people ask questions and I give me sparks of, “oh ya, they probably need to know that part too.” As I create posts with handwriting activities I’ll link them here as well. This post may contain affiliate links …