In the computer lab, we completed two projects. Our first project began with a visit to a number of Internet butterfly sites on our SmartBoard, including the butterfly cam and sites in which the children could see the beautiful colors and patterns on real butterflies. We had imported 4 black and white butterfly outlines into Kid Pix documents and the children filled in one of the butterflies in with patterns and/or solid colors. The butterflies were printed out on card stock and the children cut out their butterflies, trimming off the antennae. They punched holes in the heads, bent a pipe cleaner in half and twisted it through the hole to make the butterflies antennae. Finally they made butterflies puppets by gluing their butterflies onto tongue depressors with glue sticks. The children were enthusiastic about the project and loved playing with their puppets.

For our second computer lab project, we read The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. We used a visual chart on the SmartBoard to review the progress from the caterpillar to a butterfly. The students completed The Graph Club activity found in Language Arts for The Hungry Caterpillar in which the caterpillar�s daily food consumption was recorded on a bar graph. The students had used the application before and were happy to do the project independently. We interpreted the graph together as a whole class activity.

At the same time, Senora was introducing the Spanish words describing the stages of the life cycle for the butterfly. Many visuals were used for this introduction, including pictures and diagrams. The children worked cooperatively to color, cut and glue pictures for the butterfly life cycle on large sheets of white paper. Then the stages were labeled. The children also learned, Mariposa, a Spanish song about the butterflies using their new vocabulary. The children enjoyed using the butterfly puppets from the computer lab while singing the song.

An interesting part of the unit lies in the fact that the butterfly was introduced Kindergarten students in the Fall when the Monarch butterfly�s migration to Mexico was traced. This provides a great introduction to the kindergarten�s Spanish unit on Mexico. Senora explained how the butterflies are believed to be the souls of the dead because they are so beautiful. This Spring, the kindergarten classes study the rainforest. The morpho butterfly is a part of the study and provided the opportunity for a nice review of the butterfly information from the Fall.

Here is a short PowerPoint with some of the sights and sounds from the project