At Cione and Fishtown Recreation Centers, our teacher Liza read the Hungry Caterpillar to the children. It helped them learn reading comprehension as she asked questions about the book as she went along. Questions included “how many apples did the caterpillar eat?” and “what color were the fruits that the caterpillar ate?”. After the reading, we prepared big paper butterflies, and colorful pieces of fabric for the children to glue on. We prepared the glue onto the butterflies, and guided them through sticking them on to the paper butterfly. As the students did this, we taught them about the concept of symmetry: whats on one side will be reflected on the other. Butterflies have symmetrical wing, so what they glued on one side, was glued on the other.
This project was educational in that it taught children the way that caterpillars transition into being butterflies. It also taught them to pay attention to the reading and make their own assumptions about what the caterpillar would do next. This was brought forth by asking questions like “what will happen now that the caterpillar ate all this food?”. On the artistic side, it helped students learn about how to glue, and how different fabrics have different textures.
