How I Run a Caterpillar to Butterfly Inquiry in Kindergarten (Step-by-Step)
Starting a butterfly inquiry in Kindergarten? Have the caterpillars arrived in your classroom? 🐛
This is exactly what I do from the day they arrive → to releasing butterflies — without overcomplicating it.
👉 Want everything already organized for you?
Grab my Caterpillar & Butterfly Centres + Observation Pack here
If you want the quick version, here’s the plan:
- Introduce the caterpillars + make predictions
- Use a simple daily observation routine (I see / I think / I wonder)
- Layer in literacy + math as they grow
- Wrap it up by observing and releasing the butterflies
That’s it. No complicated planning needed.
Or scroll down to see how I run it in detail, step-by-step 👇
This is my third year raising caterpillars in the classroom and it is always such a neat experience for the kids.
Here are some of my favourite activities/ways I encourage observation and wonderings.
Before the Caterpillars Arrive
This year we read the book Katy Duck Is a Caterpillar to activate our schema about spring. It is a fiction text but a fun one that you can practice many skills with (such as making personal connections, inferencing etc.)
After we read the story we brainstormed and wrote about what we would want to be if we were in a spring dance recital like Katy Duck:
Here is a student sample.
If I was in the spring dance recital I would want to be a turtle. I would want to be a turtle because they are cute.”
🐛 When the Caterpillars Arrive
This year we were lucky to have the box delivered during the day! We put our regular activities on hold and gathered at the carpet. We told the kids there is a surprise inside the box and we gave them three clues about it. Then the kids took turns making a prediction about what they thought was inside the box.
We opened the box and I walked around so that the kids could take a peek inside the container. So many of them thought they were ants! One of our SK’s remembered doing this last year and correctly guessed that they were caterpillars.
After school we mixed the food and transferred 2-3 caterpillars into each container. Now they were ready for the kids to observe!
🔍 Daily Observations
The next day we started observing our caterpillars! The special helper completed a page in our “Room 130’s Caterpillar, Pupa & Butterfly Observation Book”. Some students recorded observations on the I see/I think/I wonder sheet you see below.
This is the routine that turns this from just watching caterpillars… into real learning.
Since sharing this blog post in 2016, the butterfly printables have a gotten an update! Here’s what they look like now👇
This daily observation routine is what makes the learning actually stick.
If you want the observation pages + recording templates already made for you:
👉 Grab them here
Each day the special helper writes the new day, check off which stage the butterfly is in and write an observation sentence by finishing the stem “I see…” We also encourage them to look closely and draw a picture as well.
“I see a caterpillar growing. It is getting longer.”
Here is an example of how the kids are using the I see/I think/I wonder sheets:
- I see the caterpillars climbing the net.
- I think they are going to be a pupa on the weekend.
- I wonder when they will become a butterfly.
➕ Integrating Math
Around Day 6 we set out this invitation for the kids to count the caterpillars.
There were 18 caterpillars. We will use this number when they start to become pupas and keep track of how many pupas and caterpillars there are each day (decomposing numbers). You can grab the recording sheets by clicking on the image below.
✏️ Literacy, Writing and Fine Motor Connections
1. Design Your Own Butterfly
While we were reading the book “From Caterpillar to Butterfly” by Deborah Heiligman…
my ECE and I found this awesome page where it shows us different butterfly species and their names. We thought that this would lend to a great discussion on making inferences on why each butterfly is named that.
After the lesson we introduced this printable and asked the students to make their own butterfly, give it a name and write why they named it that.
Here is my example:
You can grab this printable for free by clicking on the image below!
2. My Book of Butterfly Words
My kids love these thematic word booklets! The booklet includes egg, caterpillar, pupa, chrysalis and butterfly.
The kids colour the word, trace the word, print the word and colour a matching picture. I shared this with my teammates as well and they said that their kids loved the booklet too!
This mini book and all of my other buttterfly observation activities are all included (and organized for you) here:
👉 Butterfly Observation Book & Other Printables
3. Butterfly Fiction & Non-Fiction Books (for the Reading Centre)
Here are some of our favourite caterpillar/butterfly books that we had on our bookshelf while the caterpillars/butterflies were in our classroom.
They are all pretty good but our favourites were:
- Houdini The Amazing Caterpillar by Janet Pedersen
- From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman
- Bye, Bye, Butterflies! by Andrew Larson
4. Butterfly Play Dough and Loose Parts Play
Here is another independent centre idea!
I set out some play dough with black pipe cleaners, beads, butterfly sequin, googly eyes and flower and butterfly cookie cutters.
They were encouraged to create a butterfly, flower, a pattern or anything else they wanted!
I got the cookie cutters at Michaels.
Looking for more butterfly/spring themed centres? Find more ideas (and grab a FREE butterfly trace and write card) in this blog post: 15 Spring Center Ideas for Kindergarten (with 2 Freebies!)
🦋 When They Become Butterflies
We haven’t released our butterflies yet (they are still just starting to create chrysalides) but this is my favourite read aloud for when we do release them. A few days after all of the butterflies have emerged out of their chrysalides we take our butterfly net outside. We sit in a circle and read this book.
It is the perfect book to read before releasing the butterflies!
Then we open the net and gently help the butterflies out of the net. If they cooperate, we put the butterflies on the kids hands until they fly away. If you rub a piece of orange on the kids hands they will stay on the hands a little longer and some butterflies will even drink the orange juice off their kids hands!
If you’re getting caterpillars this month, save this so you have a simple plan to follow 🐛
And if you want everything already organized for you:
👉 Shop the Butterfly Observation Book and Other Printables
I hope you were able to get some new ideas for your butterfly observations!
