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This butterfly literacy theme for preschool is one of many units I’ve put together for preschoolers that’s literacy-focused and easy to implement. Each unit has ideas for shared reading, read aloud, shared writing, phonological awareness, book writing, and letter recognition and formation. I’ve included additional activities for art, math, and science so everything you need is in one place.
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Shared Reading
We started our butterfly unit by reading the Caterpillar poem together. I wrote the poem on our whiteboard and then read it aloud slowly, running a pointer under each word as I read. My son loved this poem. He asked to read it several times. By the end of the week he had much of it memorized and could chime in with me as I read.
Caterpillar
The fuzzy caterpillar
Curled upon a leaf
Spun her little chrysalis
And then fell fast asleep.
While she was sleeping
She dreamed she could fly,
And later when she woke up
She was a butterfly.
Read Aloud
You can find a wealth of butterfly books for children. Here are the ones we read that were available in our small library (affiliate links included):
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
- Butterflies (Scholastic First Discovery)
- Butterfly Tree by Sandra Markle
- From Caterpillar to Butterfly (Let’s Read And Find Out Science) by Deborah Heiligman
- Caterpillars (Peterson Field Guides for Young Naturalists) by Jonathan P. Latimer and Karne Stray Nolting
- A Monarch Butterfly Story by Melissa Kim
- Caterpillar to Butterfly (National Geographic Kids) by Laura Marsh
- Butterfly Park by Elly Mackay
- Butterfly, Butterfly by Petr Horacek
Shared Writing
After reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar we made a list of all the foods the caterpillar ate that we remembered. I drew pictures and labeled them with words. Miles helped with some of the drawings.
For another shared writing activity, we drew a life cycle of a butterfly. This was a great way to reinforce what he learned from the nonfiction books we had read. Shared writing usually means that you write about a shared experience, where the adult does the writing and the kids contribute their ideas. But in my case, Miles wanted to share the marker with me, so it became more like interactive writing.
Book Making
When you give your preschooler an invitation to write a story, you don’t always know what to expect. I asked my son if he’d like to write a caterpillar story like some of the ones we’ve been reading. He jumped at the chance.
Miles stapled some white paper together, grabbed a marker and began working right away. He was so proud of his finished work and when asked to tell me his story he didn’t hesitate. He’s at a stage where he draws pictures and random letters he knows. His story started with lots of people, and then somewhere along the way a caterpillar showed up.
Letter Recognition & Formation
I took out a sandpaper letter c and traced it with my finger to show him how to form the letter correctly. We talked about how caterpillar starts with the letter c sound. Searching for the letter c in other words in the poem was something I hadn’t planned on doing, but my son was interested, so we made a game of circling all the letter c’s we could find.
Phonological Awareness
Going on a sound hunt is one of my favorite activities. Miles loves it too. We put the sandpaper letter c in a basket and scoured the house for things starting with the same sound as “caterpillar.” He saw the couch in the living room and said “couch,” but of course that wouldn’t fit in our basket. Moments later he came back from the play room holding a piece of dollhouse furniture saying enthusiastically, “couch!”
Other Activities
For a simple, but engaging art activity, we made coffee filter butterflies. First we colored the filters with markers. Then we used a pipette to add water onto the filters one drop at a time, watching the effect on the colors. Once the filters were dried, we twisted chenille stems down the center for a butterfly body and antennae.
Do-a-dot markers are a great preschool tool. For a number recognition and counting activity, we used these markers to make caterpillars. First, we drew a number from the top of a number card deck. If we got a number 8 we had to make a caterpillar that had 8 body parts. Then we drew on some legs, antennae, and eyes. Miles really got a kick out of my caterpillar with one body part!
We happen to own The Very Hungry Caterpillar game (affiliate link) and my son dug it out of the game closet since we were learning about butterflies. It’s good for youngsters like him who are not ready to play board games by “the rules.”
The best hands-on science activity for learning about butterflies has to be watching metamorphosis take place in real time. I’ve collected monarch caterpillars many times over the years, and it never ceases to amaze me how magically these creatures change.
We found a monarch on a nature walk and are eager to see the day it transforms into a beautiful butterfly.
Final Thoughts
Preschoolers love butterflies. This butterfly literacy theme will give you and your child an opportunity to learn more about these spectacular insects while building literacy skills. Reserve a stack of caterpillar and butterfly books from your local library and download a copy of the butterfly literacy theme for preschool to get started.
