Theme of the week: Butterflies!

Our week of butterflies has officially ended. I am always open to taking longer than a week but this time I feel we have successfully completed our activities, read all our books, and gained the appropriate knowledge:) Eliana now knows that caterpillars are baby butterflies. That caterpillars are not mommies and daddies but that butterflies are and they lay eggs. That caterpillars become a chrysalis when turning into butterflies. Butterflies have feelers on their heads (not sure how well she remembers that part, as I put more emphasis on other things). C is for Caterpillar. She *might* kinda get that B is for Butterfly, but mostly seems to get B mixed up with R. It was a successful week:) Especially considering we were busy with other things more than one morning this week. Here are my personal favorites of the books we read.

Where Butterflies Grow by Joanne Ryder, illus. by Lynne Cherry. Beautifully illustrated, thorough, imaginative story about the life of the swallowtail butterfly.

"Imagine
you are someone small
hidden in a tiny egg
growing bigger
growing darker
till one hot morning
you burst your shell
and creep into brightness"

Are You a Butterfly? by Judy Allen and Tudo Humphries. Completely different than Where Butterflies Grow but I love the text and illustrations just as much. In a fun way, it tells what would happen if you were a butterfly. The cover says there are other books in the series about ladybugs, snails, and spiders (Are You a Ladybug?, etc).

The Lamb and the Butterfly by Arnold Sundgaard, illus. by Eric Carle. Nothing special, but cute enough for honorable mention. Too much repetition gets on my nerves and this story had plenty. If you like Eric Carle's illustrations (I do!) and don't mind reading about a lamb kicking up his heels over and over and a butterfly fluttering about "With a zig and a zag and a ziggety zag" on almost every page, then you'll like the book! I wouldn't add it to my amazon wish list, but it's a good library read.

Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert. Brightly colored, uniquely cut pages, well-written pleasing poetry. We liked it!

The Butterfly Alphabet by Kjell B. Sandved. The perfect ABC book for our butterfly theme! This man found the entire alphabet on butterfly wings! http://www.butterflyalphabet.com

You might like... A Place for Butterflies by Melissa Stewart, illus. by Higgins Bond. This book has perfectly wonderful illustrations! The best of all the books I've mentioned. I learned a few interesting tidbits about what some butterflies and caterpillars eat and where they live. But I have one pet peeve. It's a bit over the top on the environmentalist saving-the-butterflies issue. I like butterflies. I don't want them to die off unnecessarily. But again, I get tired of the repetition here! The left page tells an interesting fact about a caterpillar or butterfly. The right page then says, "If people [fill in the blank... work to protect forests, let some natural wildfires burn, stop using chemicals, etc], butterflies can live and grow." Literally, every page turn says that. If you are outraged by what we are doing to our environment, then you'll love this book! As for me... I just found it annoying. Still, maybe I'll plant a butterfly garden this year:)

I found butterfly crafts and other suggestions on these pages:
http://www.dltk-teach.com/books/hungrycaterpillar/index.htm
http://www.first-school.ws/theme/animals/insects/butterfly.htm
http://www.letteroftheweek.com/preparatory_lesson_16.html