Butterflies are used as units to teach children how to count. Display various numbers of butterflies on a worksheet to help children enjoy counting. A counting worksheet becomes a more challenging matching activity worksheet when it displays various numbers of butterflies in groups on one side and students are asked to match the groups to the appropriate number.
Adding color to a worksheet prompts students to study colors as well as counting. A worksheet may display a mixture of colored butterflies, and students can count the number of butterflies of a specific color. Art lessons are integrated by asking students to color a specific number of butterflies a specific color.
Butterfly wings are a natural example of bilateral symmetry, and they a good way to teach children about mirrored symmetry. Providing explanations of the concept of symmetry while children study pictures of real butterflies helps to explain how a butterfly's wings mimic each other. As children view different kinds of butterflies, they learn how to point out patterns that are identical on each wing. Children also learn about the line of symmetry, which runs directly through the middle of a butterfly. Distinguishing between pictures of butterflies with symmetrical and asymmetrical wings helps children differentiate between those two concepts.
Numbers, instead of colors, are used to teach young students about symmetry. For example, you may place the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 on a pictured butterfly's left wing as well as 1, 2, 3 and 4 on its right wing. You could use ABAB patterns instead of numbers for younger students. Students learn the symmetry of numbers by association with the symmetry of butterfly wings. When numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 appear on the left wing but only 2 and 4 are on the right wing, students use deductive reasoning and lessons on symmetry to calculate which numbers are missing from the right wing.
Following the concept of mirrored symmetry, you may draw butterfly wings with specific shapes, such as squares, circles, triangles and trapezoids. Using the drawings in a lesson helps students learn the properties of each shape. They also may design their own butterflies with matching wings of various shapes.
Color-by-numbers butterfly worksheets challenge students by using math problems instead of singular numbers to designate colors. You may download a worksheet or create your own. Such worksheets include a drawn butterfly with a range of symmetrical designs. Numbers and colors are designated for each section, but the children are required to solve an addition or subtraction problem to find which color should be in a specific section. If, for example, a portion of each butterfly wing will be blue and the number five represents the color blue, then that portion of one of the butterfly's wing can display "3+2" and the same portion on the butterfly's opposite wing can display "4+1."