Muscle Shoals Children's Library

Butterfly Story Time

This week at Story Time and Toddler Time, we learned more about the life cycle of butterflies!

On Wednesday at Story Time, we read Elmer and Butterfly by one of our favorite authors David McKee.  This is just one of the numerous Elmer books we have here at the library.

One day, as Elmer is strolling through the jungle, he hears a cry for help. A butterfly has been trapped in a hole by a fallen branch. Elmer rushes to the rescue and frees her with ease. In return she promises to help Elmer should he ever need it. Elmer cannot imagine how a tiny butterfly could ever help him, but he finds out sooner than he expects.

On Thursday at Toddler Time, we read Caterpillar Dance written by Will Grace and illustrated by Scott McBee.  This short, sweet story had very beautiful illustrations and was told in a fun rhyming pattern.

Five sleepy caterpillars--yellow, purple, green, blue, red--
All snuggled up on a soft leaf bed.
Yellow caterpillar wiggle jiggle wiggle free.
Yellow caterpillar, what will you be?

Both of these wonderful books are available to check out today!

Releasing the butterflies!

We released half our butterflies on Wednesday and half on Thursday.

Each day before letting our butterflies go, we talked some about the life cycle a butterfly goes through.  We used this poster to show the children the four different stages of the life cycle.  One child got to come up and put each piece in the spot it belonged on the poster.

 

After we discussed the life cycle of butterflies, we looked at our butterflies in the net and then watched them fly away one by one!

Craft

Both Wednesday and Thursday we made coffee filter butterflies.  The children got one butterfly made from a coffee filter and a pipe cleaner and decorated it with washable markers.  After they were finished, we sprayed the butterflies with water.  This made the colors run to create a design that resembled watercolor painting.  Some of the children took their butterflies home and some chose to leave them at the library to display.

We had a fantastic group of children and parents both Wednesday and Thursday.  We would like to thank all of you who were able to be here!  We truly appreciate all the support we get for these programs.

Story Time and Toddler Time are open to the public; everyone is welcome!  We would love to have you and your children join us next week!

Story Time is on Wednesday mornings at 10:30 a.m. for ages 3-6.

Toddler Time is on Thursday mornings at 10:30 a.m. for ages 0-3.