Learning about life cycles will be a blast with this interactive bulletin board using our favorite books, The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Students will read and discuss this fun story while showing comprehension skills and understanding the butterfly's life cycle. Afterwards, the students will show their mastery of the skill by completing the butterfly life cycle activity.
The life cycle is such a meaningful activity to bring into the classroom during the springtime when all things are growing! This engaging student-centered bulletin board is one of my favorite ways to introduce the life cycle. I truly enjoy tying in books and activities to grow my students' understanding of a concept. The perfect book to engage and connect the lesson together is a spring favorite, The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Students will enjoy learning about a butterfly's life cycle by interacting with the activities throughout this lesson.
For the "Let's Grow" bulletin board I started by adding the beautiful Fadeless® Brick Paper. I then added Hungry Catepillar themed borders. The black bulletin letters were spread across the top to spell out "Let's Grow." I added this Colorful Flower Garland to brighten the whole board and give my bulletin board more dimension.
My lesson consists of having my students grow their understanding of the life cycle. I love engaging my students with read-alouds so they can make connections throughout the books. For this lesson, The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is perfect as it walks through the life cycle of a butterfly. As a class we sequence the story using our The Hungry Catepillar Storytelling Magnets. The students love moving the pieces to demonstrate their understanding of the story events. Another way to use these interactive storytelling magnets is to add them across the board as you read the story aloud to keep your students engaged.
Next, I provide a butterfly life cycle activity for my students to complete so they can really grasp and understand the life cycle. This science activity is a perfect way to let students demonstrate their understanding of a life cycle. First, they will illustrate or cut out the provided pieces to complete the life cycle. Next, the students use higher level thinking and writing a response to the question, "What does a butterfly need to grow and become an adult?" I enjoy having my students use these interactive activities as they can later be displayed on the "Let's Grow" bulletin board. You can CLICK HERE to use the template I created to teach this lesson.
Lastly, I have my students color and decorate their own Hungry Caterpillar Crowns. This activity is a fun way to culminate our life cycle lessons. Students feel so proud wearing their crowns that demonstrate how they've mastered learning the butterfly life cycle.
Your class will love growing their science skills through this fun and interactive life cycle lesson. It is such a fun way to welcome spring into your classroom and have an engaging bulletin board all season long.
