Butterfly Puppet

In the spring we would make butterfly puppets. Already we had studied the monarch butterfly and watched a caterpillar make a chrysallis and turn into a butterfly.
To make the puppet you need one piece of 8 1/2" by 11" piece of white typing paper or computer paper. Fold the paper from top to bottom in half. You akso need a pair scissors Along the fold side of the paper draw 1/2 of the butterfly body (like 1/2 a cigar shape). Draw the wing by drawing lines from the body to the upper corner and lower corner of the paper. Remember when you cut out the butterfly from the folded paper it wil make the full form of the of the butterfly. Turn it into a puppet by holding the butterfly closed at the fold line and with the scissors cut two slits about 1/2 inch long. Make one slit on each side of your finger or thumb holding the butterfly body in the middle. This will form a "harness" for your finger to make the flying motions.
Wings can be colored according to the individual. In kindergarten, this gave us the opportunity to talk about real butterfies and what they look like. We discussed symmetry the concept of equal and the only rule we made was that each side of the butterfly had to look exactly alike, exactly equal. We talked about camouflage and some butterflies have big round circles that look like eyes to fool predators into thinking the butterfly is bigger and scarier than he actually is. We looked at actual pictures to see the actual patterns of stripes and figures on real butterflies.
This was a popular activity. We made similar bat puppets out of black construction paper at Halloween.