Mrs. McGowan's Class


Our Butterfly Study 2006

Each spring, my class studies butterfly metamorphosis. Students look forward to learning more about how caterpillars "change" into butterflies. This year, we began our study months earlier when we learned about animals and insects. We knew that insects have six legs and some can fly. But we wondered about what really happens inside the butterfly chrysalis. Was the caterpillar changing or switching body parts to look like a butterfly?

 After reading several books and viewing some interesting videos and websites about butterflies, our larvae arrived by mail around Memorial Day. We kept a log to record their growth and how they seemed to change. We measured the caterpillars with a centimeter ruler. Two of them never got to the top of the jar before the chrysalis started to show. We wondered if they would be able to complete the metamorphosis without hanging. They made it just fine! All 5 of our larvae became pretty butterflies!

 

This is a picture of the first two to emerge. We loved watching them fly away when we opened the cage outside. One butterfly landed on Bridget's sleeve for a little while!

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Learning Objectives, Activities &
Universal Design for Learning

Learning objectives
for this project

Activities
Choose 1 or more for each objective
Students will identify the four stages of the butterfly life cycle

 

 
  • Create a model with classroom materials
  • Illustrate life cycle stages (in a circle or as timeline)
  • Make a written list
  • Tell about each stage in order
Students will communicate understanding of butterfly survival by identifying appropriate body part (s) used for smell, taste, drinking, movement, and safety.

 

 

 
  • Match body part to correct sense by writing or pasting words (this was used as a pretest activity to assess what students knew about the topic)
  • Use at least one of the senses/body part in a creative writing piece
  • Tell about the topic
  • Pretend you are a butterfly and demonstrate understanding in your performance

 

A Dance With Butterflies Internet project (Susan Silverman & Dr. Sarah McPherson) was created to demonstrate lesson plans following principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and present examples of student work resulting from the lessons.  As teachers we were challenged to ask ourselves if there were any barriers to our students’ learning.  We needed to look for ways to present information and assess learning in non-text-based formats.  UDL, developed by the Center for Applied Special Technology,  provides a framework for designing lesson plans.  Based on brain research and new media, the UDL framework proposes that educators design lessons with three basic kinds of flexibility:
 

UDL Principles
 

Mrs. McGowan’s Grade 1 Butterfly Study

 
Use multiple formats and media to present information


Pictures & Illustrations

* Posters
*Magazine & book pictures
* Photos taken at Meijer Butterfly Gardens 


Movies

* The Butterfly Life Cycle – Internet movie clip of painted lady metamorphosis

Websites

* Victoria Butterfly Gardens
* A Dance With the Butterflies
* Butterflies in NJ
* Butterflies of North America

Read aloud books

* I Wish I Were A Butterfly by James Howe
* Where Butterflies Grow  by Joanne Ryder
*Where Does the Butterfly Go When It Rains? by May Garelick

Videos

 Magic School Bus - Butterflies
 Eye Witness - Butterflies & Moths

Text to speech

PowerPoint slide show introducing topic

 


Use multiple strategies to engage and motivate students


Visual Strategies

 * Simple colorful posters & photos & illustrations
* Videos
* Large print text (poems)
* Pre-selected websites*
 * Observation of insects in  different stages in the classroom

 

 
Auditory/ExpressiveStrategies

 * Class discussions
* Class brainstorming
* Asking & answering questions
* Describing
Tactile/Kinesthetic Strategies

* Measuring caterpillars & recording in log
* Role-playing


Students demonstrate learning through multiple performance and product formats.

Writing or Drawing

 * Match body part to correct sense by writing or pasting words (Use as pretest to assess what students know about topic)
* Illustrate life cycle stages (in a circle or as timeline)
* Make a written list
* Use at least one of the senses/body parts in a creative writing piece

Making

* Create a model with classroom materials
* Create illustration using computer software
* Contribute to group slide show using MaxShow (PowerPoint/Scholastic Keys)
 
Telling

* Tell about the topic
* Tell about each stage in order

Doing 

* Pretend you are a butterfly and demonstrate understanding in your performance
* Use Kidspiration Life Cycle (interactive) with talking interface

In addition, UDL calls for three goals to consider in designing lessons:

Mrs. McGowan’s Grade 1 Butterfly Study:   Goals
Recognition Goals: these focus on specific content that ask a student to identify who, what, where, and when.  To support multiple recognition pathways, students can select

     * Images or text depicting butterfly life cycle stages
     * Graphic organizer created in Kidspiration.
     * 4 square organizer written by student
Strategic Goals: these focus on a specific process or medium that asks a student to learn how to do something using problem solving and critical thinking skills.  To support multiple strategic pathways, students can:

*  Listen to (text to speech) or read directions for Kidspiration butterfly activities.
*  Choose to read on screen or print activity results.
Affective Goals: these focus on a particular value or emotional outcome. Do students enjoy, and appreciate learning about the topic? Does it connect to prior knowledge and experience?  To support multiple affective pathways, students:

*  Have real-life personal experience with butterflies (sometimes with caterpillars too)
*  Will have direct experience with live insect larva and butterflies
*  Choose activities that are varied and fun to engage in (whole-class, individual, partners or small groups).
 
Activities

Most of my students chose to make a model with paper scraps.  Here are some examples:


Tyler


Matthew

Some students chose to draw a picture.  Maddy's illustration also is a time line from egg to butterfly.

All of the children chose to do a creative writing piece after reading Aileen Fisher’s poem, Butterfly Wings (listed in resources). They all imagined a pretend butterfly traveling somewhere. A few acted this out as part of our prewriting brainstorm. It was lots of fun! Butterflies were colored with crayons and scanned to use on the computer. Then they planned their writing using folded paper (4 square style). A graphic organizer made with Kidspiration showing butterfly senses was printed and given to each student as a resource to use with their writing:

All of the students inserted their scanned illustration into a Power Point slide. We used MaxShow from Scholastic Keys and added a title using Word Art. Some students also made illustrations in PAINT and added those images to their slides too. The teacher typed in story text (we were in a rush to finish before school ended!). MaxShow has a talking interface that reads the text on a page. This was helpful for students who needed this extra support while reading their classmates’ pages. Others turned it on just because they thought it was fun to watch a parrot read the pages!

Take a look at some of our PowerPoint slides.

 

All of the other written work done by the class (including a whole class diamante poem) can be viewed on this page:

Butterfly Wings

Their finished writing also was printed and displayed in the hallway to share with our school community.

A final assessment was done with each student using a Kidspiration template. Once again, the talking interface was available. This is a very simple drag and drop activity that shows how alternative assessment can be done on the computer. I’m excited to utilize this kind of assessment with other topics throughout our curriculum.

Click HERE to download this Kidspiration file. You'll need Kidspiration on your computer to use it.

Resources:
 

Books:

I Wish I Were A Butterfly
 by James Howe
Where Butterflies Grow 
by Joanne Ryder
Where Does the Butterfly Go When It Rains?
by May Garelick

I'm A Caterpillar
 by Jean Marzollo

Videos:

Magic School bus - Butterflies
Eye Witness - Butterflies & Moths

Poem:

Butterfly Wings

How would it be
on a day in June
to open your eyes
in a dark cocoon,
And soften one end
and crawl outside,
and find you had wings
to open wide,
And find you could fly
to a bush or tree
or float on the air
like a boat at sea . . .
How would it BE?
—Aileen Fisher
 

Websites:
* Victoria Butterfly Gardens  

This website had the answer to our question: How does a caterpillar turn into a butterfly? This is not easy to explain. One could say that inside the chrysalis the caterpillar changes clothes and turns into a butterfly. Actually, what happens is that the caterpillar structures are broken down chemically and the adult’s new structures are formed. To be more blunt, the solids of the caterpillar completely liquefy and then form the new solid structures of the butterfly.

* Butterflies in NJ

* A Dance With the Butterflies - Curriculum Materials

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