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- Ir al parque o la plaza
- Estar en contacto con la naturaleza
- Hacer picnic
- Seguir observando insectos
- Cocinar

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Surprise your little scientist with this caterpillar and butterfly science activity with balloons. All it takes are a few items from around the house to create this science experiment!
Are you ready for this Butterfly STEM challenge?
Butterfly Science Activity for The Very Hungry Caterpillar

It's Butterfly Week at the Weekly Virtual Book Club for Kids. Our featured book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. It could not be better timing as we just had some monarch caterpillars arrive in our backyard on the milkweed. I can't wait to watch them eat and grow along with my girls.

Have your ever grown milkweed to attract monarch butterflies in your yard?

Here's how you can Make your own butterfly garden and how it can provide many chances for Learning Activities with Butterflies for your child.
This post contains affiliate links to amazon.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Click here for more Butterfly Book we LOVE!
One of my favorite things to do each year in my classroom was to order Caterpillars and watch them grow as a class. Then we added milkweed to our garden and have monarchs visit often to lay eggs and we get to see them grow again and again.

It's really quite magical every single time. We thought it might be fun to see if we can create our own STEM Challenge to turn caterpillars into butterflies and found a fun twist on this balloon science activity.
Are you ready to see how it's done?
Caterpillar to Butterfly Science Activity with Balloons

The kids will want to do this again and again, which it great since it only needs a few items from your kitchen. Here's what you'll need to get started.

Materials for Butterfly Science Activity

Directions for Butterfly STEM Challenge

1. DRAW a butterfly onto a balloon on one side.

ADD A SURPRISE ELEMENT: The first time I did this with my girls I hid the butterfly and just showed them me attaching the filled caterpillar to the bottle so it was a surprise when the butterfly showed up. They were so surprised!!!

Something to think about to add to the FUN FACTOR of this Science Activity. Then, of course, they wanted to create their own and I allowed them to play around with levels of amounts to create a Challenge for them.

2. Draw a caterpillar onto this same balloon on the other side.

3. Fill the empty plastic container with vinegar. You only need a little bit to make this reaction.

4. Then fill the balloon with baking soda by inserting a funnel into the opening and placing a spoonful into the funnel to fill inside of the balloon.

5. Attach the balloon to the plastic container with vinegar. Careful not to spill any of the baking soda inside of the container. When you hang the balloon be sure to hang it on the caterpillar side and talk about how the caterpillar forms a chrysalis that hangs.

6. Now it's time for the STEM Challenge!!! Can make your butterfly grow?

Encourage your child to LIFT UP the caterpillar balloon and allow the baking soda to fill into the container. WATCH and see what happens next!!!!

7. SURPRISE! You balloon will fill up with the gases released from the chemical reaction between the vinegar and baking soda.

How does it work? When baking soda and vinegar mix, they release carbon dioxide (this is the same gas that is in the bubbles in your carbonated drinks).
* LIKE IT? PIN IT!! * Want more Butterfly STEM Challenges?
Take this Science Activity a step further into STEM design by encouraging them to...

Use Technology to research how caterpillars really change inside of their chrysalis into Caterpillars

Use Engineering to build their own butterfly that stands or flies.

Use Math to calculate the rate of growth for the caterpillar in ratio to the amount of baking soda and vinegar used.

Once you think about it the ideas grow and grow for STEM focused activities with this project.

Butterfly & Caterpillar Activities for Preschoolers

Here are a few more activities to go along with the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Have fun learning about Butterflies with your child!

Butterfly Activities for Kids

Try these Virtual Field Trips for Spring!

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Caterpillar to Butterfly Science Activity with Balloon

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Surprise your little scientist with this caterpillar and butterfly science activity with balloons. All it takes are a few items from around the house to create this science experiment! Are you ready for this Butterfly STEM challenge? It's Butterfly Week at the Weekly Virtual Book Club for Kids.

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Hello Hello - THE KIBOOMERS Preschool Songs for Circle Time About Emotions

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The Ants Go Marching | Kids Songs | Super Simple Songs

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Tissue paper worms. Growing wriggly worms. Science experiment for kids. Step-by-step tutorial.

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We're Going on a Bear Hunt - Preschool Songs & Nursery Rhymes for Circle Time

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Have fun outside making your own shadow art with kids! Kids can design any sort of shapes or images they'd like on the cardboard and parents or caregivers can help cut them out.
RELATED: Sidewalk Chalk Recipe
Shadow Art for Kids Activity

We love that there are so many possibilities with this activity! You can even do words, letters, shapes or plain cardboard images too.

Our book - Fun and Easy Crafting with Recycled Materials is bursting with cardboard crafts like this one. There is a whole chapter of cardboard crafts. But not only that, there are other recycled crafts for kids too - egg cartons, paper rolls, newspaper, popsicle sticks, jars and more!

Supplies Needed to Make Shadow Art
-Cardboard
-X-acto Knife (adults only to use)
-Tape -Glue Stick
-Free Printable Templates (for the turtle and butterfly) - see the bottom of the post for instructions on how to receive the free printable templates.

Watch the Video Tutorial Here

How to Make Your Own Cardboard Shadow Art for Kids

1. Start by printing out the free turtle and butterfly templates. Instructions for getting the free printable turtle and butterfly template are at the bottom of the post.

You can also draw your own designs! For the rainbow, we drew our own since we wanted it to be bigger than what our printer could fit.

Cut out the shapes or you can also cut out each individual pieces of the shapes to trace onto your cardboard.

2. Trace the shape onto the cardboard.

3. You should now have your design on the cardboard.

Kids can draw their own shapes or animals too!

4. Adults will now need to help using an X-acto knife to cut out the areas of the design. Make sure to place something underneath to protect your table while cutting.

5. Cut out matching shapes from cellophane and tape to the back of your cardboard.

For the butterfly, we first taped the yellow on first, and then added the colors on top with a glue stick.

The glue stick won't show marks when gluing the cellophane together, but if you use regular white glue you will see the glue marks when it dries.

6. Now go outside in the sun and see how your new designs create amazing shadow art on the sidewalk!

We had a lot of fun making the butterfly fly as a shadow and pretending to make it fly. You could do birds or a kite too! There are so many options with this activity!

To get the templates, subscribe below and it will be delivered to your inbox as a free gift. Please make sure to check ALL folders for the confirmation email.

More Outdoor Sidewalk Activities
Here are the final shadow art cardboard designs we made:
See how to make your own sidewalk chalk paint!

Or try this puffy sidewalk paint.

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Have fun outside making your own shadow art with kids! Kids can design any sort of shapes or images they'd like on the cardboard and parents or caregivers can help cut them out. RELATED: Sidewalk

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