Kindergarten Caterpillars and Butterflies

This is a cute but LONG lesson I do at some point each year with kindergarten. We learn about primary and secondary colors, texture, overlapping, and some neat properties of coffee filters.

Here goes:

Week 1
We discuss texture. I distribute texture plates and give children the flat crayons to rub on a full sheet of white construction paper. This makes the background for the artwork. The children can experiment with the different tiles. Next the children are given two sheets each of orange, purple, and green papers and a circle stencil cut into 3" squares. I like yogurt container lids. They trace one circle and stack up two sheets of paper to cut out the circles. Stacking and cutting paper is one of their objectives in kindergarten. Next they arrange them on the paper so that they overlap slightly creating the body and head of their caterpillar. Make sure the children do this several inches above the bottom of the paper so that they do not cover most of their critter with the grass. This can and will result in tears! Finally, have the children glue down their circles using glue sticks to save time. When showing them how to arrange their colors, this is a great time to talk about patterns!

Week 2
The children color two coffee filters each with markers and later paint with plain old water to cause the markers to run. Do not use florescent markers because they will not run when wet and they wont give you that cool tie-dye look. Encourage the children to use different colors. A great use of markers that are running out a bit. This will take them one whole class to color.

A good way to save time if the children are running behind: Stack the two circles before wetting them and the markers will bleed through. A couple more tips: have the children write their names in the center in pencil and don't color over them. Also have them work on top of a scrap paper. The scrap paper takes on the tie-dye look and children can take them home. They dry on the drying rack and then are flattened under books.

Week 3
Show children how to fold the coffee filters in a fan formation. Stack two 'closed' fans on top of each other, squeeze in the middle, pinch, and secure with pipe cleaners. The pipe cleaners become antennae for the caterpillars. Finally the children can open up all the wings and see their beautiful butterfly.
In my six years of doing this lesson I've met only a handful of kindergarteners who can master this, so teacher assistants are great! While you are helping the children with this step, the children use a 3" x 12" rectangle of green paper to cut into grass. They just snip along one long side and glue the bottom part down to the bottom of their background page to create grass. They can roll the blades of grass around a crayon to curl it. Staple the butterfly to the sky, glue on a google eye or two to the caterpillar and you've got yourself quite a masterpiece!