Find age-appropriate stories about caterpillars turning into butterflies, such as "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." Supplement these with images of caterpillars and butterfilies. Ask the class to help you put the pictures up around the room. Start the lesson by assessing prior knowledge and asking the children what they know about caterpillars and butterflies. Read the book with the children. Include time for questions and for the children to guess or predict what might happen on the next page of the story. Finish the story by asking the children to summarize what happened and to give their opinions. Develop the children's reading abilities through these steps of assessing their prior knowledge, helping them preview and monitor during reading, and finish with the challenge of summarizing.
Tap into the Multiple Intelligences approach by encouraging the children to create artwork related to caterpillars and butterflies. Explain to the class that fun activities such as making art can also help them understand more about caterpillars wrapping up in their cocoons and then turning into butterflies. Children can use crayons or colored pencils to draw their own caterpillars and butterflies. Offer children printed sheets showing the metamorphosis for them to color and cut out. Offer glitter and glue for additional decoration. Decorate cardboard cutouts of caterpillars and butterflies. Provide the children fabric and trim for texture in their work. Display the artwork in prominent places and encourage the children to talk about their creations.
Use the caterpillar and butterfly unit to introduce or review the alphabet letters. Emphasize "B" for "Butterfly" and "C" for "Caterpillar." Let the children write the letters on various types of paper, including lined paper for handwriting practice as well as plain white or colored paper for freehand practice. Help the children notice that the "C" in "Caterpillar" sounds like a "K." Encourage the kids to make drawings and images from the letter shapes. Use two cutouts of the letter "B" and place them back to back, with one "B" backward and one forward. When the children see that the two "Bs" look like a butterfly, they can create their own butterflies from the letter "B." The letter "C" also works in the same way for caterpillar, which they can draw curled like a "C."
Set up a science project with the kindergartners. Review the cycle of caterpillars curling up into cocoons and hatching into butterflies. Keep posters on the wall of this cycle that the children have created. Prepare shoe boxes or wide-mouth jars for the caterpillars. Take the children on a walk to look for caterpillars on leaves. Help the children place the caterpillars in the containers and cover with a breathable material. Collect twigs and leaves to complete the caterpillars' environment. Each day, ask the children to check on the caterpillars. Remind them that the process could take one or two weeks. Invite the kids to keep logs of the date and events they observe. Encourage the scientific inquiry as the butterflies are due to hatch. Remind the children that some cocoons may contain other insects such as flies or wasps that are part of the natural process. Make an occasion of releasing butterflies or the other insects upon completion of the unit.