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Butterfly theme for 3 and 4 year olds: a week of activities

A butterfly theme lesson plan for 3 and 4 year olds: what a day looks like, then the week's circle time (ten to fifteen minutes, with a child holding the book), books, craft, song, snack, letter and outside time, each with what changes at this age.

Plan this week for 3 and 4 year oldsThe whole butterfly week

A day of the butterfly theme with 3 and 4 year olds

  1. Arrival, sign-in, and a job from the helper chart.
  2. Circle (ten to fifteen minutes): calendar, “What does a caterpillar turn into?”, sing “ring around the rosie”, then Meg and the Seed.
  3. Centers, with the craft at one table: fold-print butterfly.
  4. Letter B: trace it once, then hunt for B around the room.
  5. Snack: Fruit Caterpillar, with children pouring and counting.
  6. Outside: caterpillar to butterfly.
  7. Rest, then a longer read-aloud: Can I Pet It?.

Butterfly circle time

  1. Good morning song, then say each name together.
  2. Calendar: the day, the date and the weather.
  3. Ask: “What does a caterpillar turn into?”
  4. Sing: Ring Around the Rosie.
  5. Read: Meg and the Seed (level 3).

Threes and fours: ten to fifteen minutes; let a child hold the book.

Butterfly theme books

  • Meg and the Seed (level 3, free on peabody.kids): Waiting for something to change, like a chrysalis.
  • Go, Snail, Go! (level 3, free on peabody.kids): A small creature in the garden.
  • Can I Pet It? (read aloud, level 4): A read-aloud pattern book about animals and bees: look, don't touch.

Butterfly craft: Fold-print butterfly

You need (4): paper butterfly shape (grown-up cuts), washable paint, a spoon, a pipe cleaner.

  1. Drop paint on one wing.
  2. Fold the butterfly in half and press.
  3. Open it up: the wings match. Add a pipe-cleaner body when dry.

With a grown-up. No heat, nothing hot.

Butterfly song: Ring Around the Rosie

The words

Ring around the rosie, A pocket full of posies, Ashes, ashes, We all fall down.

Traditional; public domain. From Top 52 nursery rhymes with lyrics.

Butterfly snack

Fruit Caterpillar from the Peabody Kitchen: picture steps, allergy swaps and safety lines on the recipe.

Letter B activities

BbB is for butterfly. Print the two pages (a trace page and a color page).

Threes and fours: trace B and b once, then find B in the room and in the book.

Outside activity: Caterpillar to butterfly

Crawl like a caterpillar, curl up still as a chrysalis, then fly around the yard as a butterfly.

Butterfly theme for toddlersButterfly theme for 2 year oldsButterfly theme, all ages

Checked 2026-10-30