Toddler Butterfly Crafts, Activities and Books

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

These are a few books and activities that can be used when teaching about butterflies to toddlers and preschoolers insha'Allaah.

For storytime, you may wish to read aloud Ana alfaraashah and for reference you may find the book Ten Little Caterpillars helpful or it can be part of your selection of books for a unit on butterflies insha'Allaah.

The book Ana alfaraasha, like all of the books in this really wonderful series, has a bookmark inside of the book attached with a piece of ribbon. Each book mark is the animal featured in the story. Infants may also enjoy these beautiful board books as well. When using this book for toddlers, they can make butterfly book marks after hearing the story read aloud:

For the book Ten Little Caterpillars, there are many crafts and activities that can be done using this book as well.

The story of Ten Little Caterpillars ends with one of the caterpillars turning into a butterfly. For this part of the story, you can make flannel/felt pieces for your read aloud and invite children to come up and help tell the story with the pieces as you read:

The felt pieces show the apple tree branch that the caterpillar attached itself to, the chrysalis of that butterfly and the chrysalis of the Monarch butterfly, and the Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly that the caterpillar turned into. Not pictured: the little caterpillar that climbed the tree branch.

If you're wondering why there are two chrysalises pictured, it is because if you've talk a bit about how a caterpillar changes into a butterfly by the Permission of Allaah and you use the last three pages in the back of Ten Little Caterpillars as a teaching tool, later children can see if they remember which chrysalis belongs to the Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly at the end of the story.

The last three pages of the Ten Little Caterpillars show different caterpillars and the type of butterfly or moth they change into. The pages also briefly mention what type of food each caterpillar eats. Using those pages, you can make caterpillar cards and butterfly cards for some (or each) of the caterpillars and butterflies in the story. Below are the caterpillar and butterfly cards for four of the butterflies in the story.

In your literacy centre or after you have read the story with your little one you can lay the cards out and invite the child to match the caterpillar to the correct butterfly. For this age group, have the book ready to be used for help insha'Allaah.

Children can also do many other crafts involving butterflies, and they can learn the basic parts of the butterfly and label them on a worksheet. The picture of the butterfly can be found here insha'Allaah (in the section labeled Art, scroll down; it is the seventh (7th) file for download).

If you use this in your Kindergarten unit on Butterflies, you can also introduce symmetry. You can find worksheets here and here.

Enjoy insha'Allaah!