Home School Lessons:

When Emma was in kindergarten my sister home schooled her and being the absolute nerd that I am, I would make up lesson plan units and send them to her and then she would send them back and I would then send her a prize. What can I say? I do love being a teacher and I honestly think this kind of stuff is fun :)

Well, I had totally forgotten about this particular unit until Christian went to preschool last week and his teacher had a whole bunch of caterpillars that had weaved little cocoons around themselves and this week he's been enjoying watching the butterflies emerge. And so I've whipped out this old life cycle unit that I made up. Some of it is too hard for him (it's more for kindergarten or first grade, but he can do all of it with some help).

So I thought I would share it with those of you who might be interested or who might be homeschooling and would enjoy having someone else do a little bit of the work for you.

In my opinion this verse (see above) is the most important part of the lesson!!! I love it! I know it's not a common verse, but bare with me for a second. I love talking about how when you "eat" God's word it brings JOY to your life. You can talk about what it means to "bear" God's name. You can discuss HOW you can eat God's word (by reading it, by memorizing it, by obeying it). Then ask the question: What happens when you "eat" God's word??? Answer: It brings JOY and DELIGHT to your heart! It makes your life better. It changes something inside of you.

Here's how you tie it into your butterfly lesson:

You read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and then you talk about how the caterpillar turned into a beautiful butterfly after he ate all those different kinds of food in the book. We're the same way, just like the caterpillar....God will make our hearts into something beautiful when we "eat" his word.

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Here is the basic Lesson plan that I made up for Emma for a week:

Life Cycle Unit Lesson Plan
Day 1:
1. Read aloud the “Butterfly’s Life Cycle” sheet to Emma. Complete the “Listening Comprehension” worksheet that’s attached to it.
2. Complete the butterfly connect the dots.
3. Read the memory verse and discuss it. Practice saying it a few times. Post it somewhere where it can be read often.
4. Complete the art activity in the zip lock bag (it’s labeled DAY 1).
5. HOMEWORK: Have Emma color the title page that I glued on her folder.

Day 2:
1. Caterpillar Story activity
2. Complete the life cycle labeling page.
3. Butterfly addition worksheet (start in school, finish for homework).

Day 3:
1. Chris Caterpillar & Sammy Snail Worksheet
2. Cut and Paste (green) life cycle worksheet
3. Life Cycle acting activity.
4. The Life Cycle of Butterflies worksheet

Day 4:
1. Beebie and the Caterpillar worksheet
2. Handprint Butterfly Craft (you’ll need lots of construction paper). Abby could do this too!
3. Start working on the Butterfly book. There’s a lot of writing, so I would work on this over 2 days.


Day 5:
1. Finish the Butterfly book.
2. Read Fun Facts about Butterflies
3. Complete the vocabulary matching activity
4. Worksheet (doesn’t have a title, has a picture of the life cycle on it).


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Here's the deal....I have no idea how to upload all the worksheets on to the internet. I know that there should be a way to "host" them so that you could just click on them and print it out, but I don't know how to do that. So if you want the unit just leave a comment including your email address and I will email you the entire unit. You could also head on over to Enchanted Learning and see a bunch of activities they have there. That's where I got most of my ideas!