Lesson 46 - Personal Butterflies

Today we had a ticklish and interesting lesson; we made beautiful personal butterflies.

A few weeks back the children of Top Hat Montessori released their own live butterflies, which they had matured in cocoons in the classroom.

We wanted to pay homage to the butterflies by making our own beautiful butterflies but with a twist. On a piece of plain paper we drew the butterfly body or thorax with a marker. The children colored this with markers. Next each child’s foot was painted on the bottom with three different colored paints, so one color was used on the toes, another in the arch of the foot and a third color on the heel. Then the children ‘stamped’ their foot on the paper to make the butterflies’ upper wings. For the lower wings we did the same thing to our hand, and we stamped the paper twice, overlapping each stamp to indicate the butterfly wing movement.

The children loved getting their feet and hands painted with multiple colors. Many ticklish kids got the giggles while their feet were being painted. Every butterfly we made today is unique, because it uses the child’s hand and footprint to create it. The results are as beautiful and individual as the children.

Lastly, we added the antennae and some sparkles to complete our beautiful personal butterfly creations.