Using Annake's Garden's "Extras"

J. D. and I originally started our "Extras" section (see tab in the menu above) to encourage older people to learn how to keep doing art and crafts even though their eyes and hands, like mine, have lost some clarity and dexterity, and also to encourage newcomers to try new techniques. Then came the pandemic. We found ourselves adding suggestions for dealing with small children, guiding the "’tweens" to learn things at their own pace and look for more, and devising self-teaching units for teens who like to learn on their own or with a group they choose as co-learners. Some of you have already taken advantage of what we have posted and we intend to keep adding to the "Extras" and organizing them to make them readily available.

We realize that there are many of you who will find yourself staying home and supervising children of all ages over the coming weeks and months. This will be new territory for many of you, especially dads, grandpas, and older brothers who may be taking courses of their own. Using our most recent previous post, we are using this current post to demonstrate teaching a topic at many levels, starting with small children. Please bear with us and follow through the age-level examples. You cannot teach a three-year-old the way you coached that after-school soccer team.

If you read our Extras, you probably have noticed that I often suggest teaching children of various ages with simple themes and equipment.  We just did a post about butterflies and moths. That set me to thinking about various things that could be taught to children at various levels of development, starting with teaching very young children with the aid of paper butterflies. The butterflies use simple materials and are easy to make. I have included some outline patterns at the end of this section to get you started. You can begin with very young children and progress to teach more complex ideas as the children grow older. At the end of this discussion I will make some suggestions for older children and also suggest how teens can turn the subject into a self-teaching unit for science, creative writing, etc.

TEACHING WITH PAPER BUTTERFLIES

Prepare yourself:

Make a note of the facts you know about butterflies and do a search for additional information. Children will ask questions — lots and lots of questions. Treat them seriously because they are serious to the children. If you don't know the answer, tell them so and promise to find out. Keep your promise. Breaking promises to children is destructive to your relationship with them. Don't worry that they will think you don't know everything about everything. They will come to that conclusion on their own. And a few years from now, they will conclude that you don't know anything about anything that they are passionate about.

Prepare your materials:

You will need:
    a pencil
    paper (Colored construction paper, gift wrap, colorful magazine  pictures)
    scissors (sharp-pointed for you, put away afterward; blunt-pointed for them)
    tape, paste, or glue
    popsicle or ice cream bar sticks
    patterns for several butterflies
Nice to have:
    a pipe cleaner for each butterfly (cut them in half if you like)
    glitter (Yes, gentlemen, you need to master glitter as well)
    a hole-punch to make holes in the wings or make "dots" to glue on
    clear plastic if you want clear or partially-clear wings

Don't worry. You will need this stuff again and again. Have a place to store it and make participating in clean-up a part of each lesson.

 What to do:

Click here to download

Cut out two butterfly shapes the same size. For older children, make sure the two shapes are from different papers so that you can demonstrate how the wings look different when the butterflies are flying and when they are at rest.

To make antennae, use two small pieces of paper or bend a pipe cleaner in half. curl the ends of the pipe cleaner so there are no sharp ends.

Decorate the butterfly wings.

If you want wings that are partially clear, cut "windows" in the same place on both sets of wings. Glue clear plastic on the backs of the butterflies.
Cut off any plastic that shows past the edges of the butterflies.

Glue the butterfly bodies to the popsicle stick. You may want to do this one at a time and let them dry completely before you attach the other side. If you are using antennae, glue them to the back of the top butterfly before you attach it to the popsicle stick.

When a butterfly is dry, wave the stick through the air to make sure everything is firmly attached.

Teaching with your butterflies:

Start with simple ideas. Butterflies are very small animals. We should not touch them because we could hurt them. If one comes and sits on us, we should be very quiet and not move until the butterfly flies away. Butterflies fly by flapping their wings.  (Put your hands up, thumbs together and demonstrate flapping. Have the children try to copy you.) When the butterfly needs to rest or sleep, it sits on a plant and holds its wings together. (Hands up, palms together, children copy.) With your paper butterflies, show that the butterflies fronts and backs are different. Let each child choose a butterfly and name it. Let the children "fly" their butterflies around the room for a few minutes, then bring them to be put away. Go through the routine of flapping the next session. Ask the children questions to see if they remember what they learned before. Then teach a couple of new concepts.  It is nice to have a story as follow-up.

If your local library is currently open, find out what children's picture books and storybooks about butterflies and caterpillars are available or can be ordered for you. If you have more than two children, who can sit on either side of you while you read, have them sit in a semicircle in front of you. Show them the cover of the book and then tell them the title. After you read each page, turn it so that all the children can see it and give them time to look. Children will have favorites and want to hear them over and over. Don't show how bored you may be, and don't ‘cheat’ by leaving out parts. They will know! And if you do it again, you will lose a little bit of their trust.

There are literally thousands of pictures of butterflies and short videos about them on line. If it is winter or you are in an area where the children are not likely to see butterflies, these are a good alternative.

You can teach any simple idea with some version of this technique. Don't try to teach too many new things in one day and remember that repetition is the way small children learn. Praise progress; correct gently. Correct quietly, but firmly if the child is doing something dangerous or destructive. You are now officially on your own.  Good luck. There is always the next time to do better.
  

The "’Tweens" —  Grades 4 Through 8

Starting at about 4th grade, children will, if encouraged, begin to find out things on their own. Competition plays a part in this. Timed quizzes and JEOPARDY-type games become popular, especially if grades are not involved. Continuing with our butterfly theme, here are some suggestions for further study, both in and out of class. The work can be individual or group-oriented. The complexity of the questions and the language for the suggested topics can be adjusted to the age level.

1. Butterflies are insects. In the next 5 minutes, write down a list of as many insects as you can think of. (Students make their lists. Teacher writes them on a poster or chalkboard.) Were there any that weren't insects? Cross them off. Ask the students to choose 3 insects from the list and find out 3 unusual or startling facts about them by (give a time limit.) Some students will go much further than the assignment. Share all information.

2. Over millions of years, many flowering plants have formed a partnership with butterflies and other animals. A butterfly visits a flower. It unrolls its long proboscis, a tube-like mouth-part, to drink a sweet, sugary fluid called nectar from the flower. This does not hurt the flower. The flower made the nectar for just this purpose. Often there are lines or spots on the flower to show the butterfly how to find the nectar. While the butterfly moves around, it picks up pollen which sticks to its body. When it flies to another flower, some of the pollen rubs off. This helps the flower.

Research to find the answers to these questions:
    What is pollen and why does the flower need it moved to another flower?
    What kind of light can the butterfly see that we cannot?
    How do flowers make sure that the butterfly picks up some pollen?
    What other animals pollinate flowers? Name one that is not an insect.
    What is cross-pollination and why is it important?

3. Butterflies and moths go through 4 different stages in their lives. They are egg, caterpillar (also called larva), pupa and adult. The process is called metamorphosis, which means "changing shape process". A 4-stage process of change is called complete metamorphosis. Fewer than 4 stages are sometimes called incomplete metamorphosis. For example, a frog goes through 3 stages: egg, tadpole, frog. The caterpillar hatches out of the egg, eats as much as it can, grows so much that it has to shed its skin several times (a process called molting). Then it hangs its body, usually by the tail, on a twig or branch and appears to go to sleep. Its body hardens as a stiff covering forms over it. A moth usually spins a tough silk covering, called a cocoon, for itself and often does this underground. But in either case the body changes completely, so that, when it comes out of the little shell or cocoon it leaves behind, it is a butterfly or a moth. Read about butterfly or moth metamorphosis and draw a picture of the 4 stages.

4. You may want to know why animals and plants have those strange looking scientific names. Think of it this way: the common name "butterfly" is not the same in many other languages — 300 of them to be exact!  Here are just a few of those names for butterfly and their countries: sommerfugl (Denmark), papillion (France), psyche (Greece), chouchou (Japan), farfalla (Italy), lubalaba (West Africa), mariposa (Spain), parpar (Israel). Imagine trying to translate the name of the Tiger Swallowtail butterfly into 300 different languages!  When an animal or plant has one scientific name, scientists from every one of those countries will recognize it and be able to write or talk to scientists in other countries about it. Just for fun, why don't you write a new name for "butterfly" and share it with the class?

5. Teach students the form for writing a haiku. Have them cut a butterfly shape from paper and write or print their haiku on it. Then have them incorporate their butterfly into a poster, paper sculpture, mobile or other art form.  Make a display of all the projects.

6. More ideas:

    Silk thread is made by silkworm moth caterpillars. This is a huge industry. Some older students may want to research it. CAUTION: They may not like what they find.

    The Painted Lady butterfly is found on all the continents except South America and Antarctica. Some students may like the Painted Lady Migration Project. Potential for map studies and figuring large distances.

     Moths have been around for about 200 million years. What do fossils tell us about the Earth at that time? Butterflies appeared about 50 million years ago. What might have been happening to make them become active in daylight?

     Many butterflies and moths are endangered by climate change, deforestation, loss of habitat and loss of food plants. Some may have already become extinct. What can we do to help protect them?

How Teens Can Do a Self-Teaching Unit That They Won't get In School

Teens:  self-teaching units are completely directed by you. There is nothing to be turned in and there are no grades. The units provide information on a subject and suggest activities, but you are in control of which ones you find interesting and challenging. You work at your own speed and select what is most interesting to you. You may work alone or contact friends or fellow students who might like to join you in the study, in person or online. The results of your research can be converted into essays, term papers, speeches, 3-dimensional constructions or other projects if those interest you and further your traditional education.

Currently there are two complete units in our Extras — a botany unit on the history of trees, and one on being an archaeologist. I'm going to "walk you through" a zoology unit suggested by our previous post. There is also a series of our posts on Color, combining several sciences and visual art. Below are the first four in the series, which you can find in our Archives. The fifth installment, which concerns the appearance and development of eyes over millions of years and the impact of color on living organisms today, is slated for late September.

August 14, 2019: Spectral Light And Structural Light; All About Color, Part I
September 24, 2019: Pigments And Palettes; All About Color, Part II
February 10, 2020: The Non-Colors And Metallics; All About Color, Part III
June 28, 2020: The "Escenses" of Color; All about Color, Part VI

In order to make our previous post the basis of a self-teaching unit, first read the directions for the 'Tweens above, and write down investigations that you could carry much further, making note of any scientific terms for follow-up. Then go to the bottom of this page and select "Older Posts". The first one will be our article: "Butterflies, Moths, and Words: Entomology & Etymology". Read it and consider how you would proceed if you chose to study that subject. We will continue to add more units on sciences and the arts as time permits, so check back occasionally. J.D. and I wish you the very best of luck in your studies.

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.