Butterfly Catchers 

 

This week preschool has looked further into butterflies and took part in activities to enhance on their learning. To begin with, over the last few weeks, the children has watched the growth of the butterflies from the caterpillar stages, and has been monitoring them since they’ve all now come out of their cocoons, resulting to 5. Later in the garden the children all gathered round the butterfly net, with one child unzipping the net and taking turns in holding it down, in attempt to set the butterflies free. Informing the children the importance of being gentle around the butterflies because of their fragile wings, which the children took on board very well. 

 

Next, in groups the children engaged in some painting of farfalle pasta with the majority agreeing that “the pastas are in the shape of a butterfly”. The children gathered some paintbrushes and had a variety of colours to choose from ranging from dark to light, to paint their butterfly pastas with. This group activity encouraged a lot of socialising amongst the children with many of them starting up conversations of comparison of colours, shapes, numbers and other mathematical relations. This supports the children’s recognition of actions, e.g. “ I’ve painted 5 blue butterflies and 3 green ones.” Also supports their physical development, fine motor skills, communication with their peers and their expressive arts and design. 

 

To increase the excitement more, after the children’s butterfly pastas were dry, they played a game in seeing how many butterflies they catch in their bowls. With someone dropping their colourful butterflies from an upper distance, taking turns the children has to try catch them in their bowl, whilst preventing them from dropping on the floor. This fun game encourages focus and balance, it can encourage cooperation with their peers giving them supportive advice from the sides, encourages physical development with holding their bowl well, whilst moving around with their legs whilst their eyes are fixed on the butterflies, so it’s a lot of multi tasking ! 

 

Overall the children done amazing and cooperated so well with each other, having a positive attitude towards the learning and engagement of the activities! :)