Kids can explore a variety of early literacy skills with these butterfly name activities for preschool. Be sure to add them to the rest of your butterfly activities for preschoolers!
Young children need hands-on, meaningful activities to learn. And what’s more meaningful than their names?! Incorporate these butterfly name crafts into your next butterfly theme. Kids will be excited to make the butterfly crafts focused on their names.
Below you’ll find two ideas for name learning activities with a butterfly twist. I even have a few additional suggestions for you, in case you want to tweak things a bit.
Related: Butterfly Life Cycle for Kids
It’s no secret that we do a ton of name activities in preschool! Names are important to the kiddos, and learning their names is something every preschooler strives for. A child’s name can be used to teach so many early learning concepts, too.
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Butterfly Name Activities for Preschool
As I mentioned above, I’ve got two butterfly crafts for you that are focused on kids’ names. You can make some changes to what we did, or try things exactly the same way.
Materials for the Butterfly Name Crafts
Here’s what we used for the butterfly-inspired name fun (I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post):
You can change up the supplies if you need to or want to. For example, use cardstock in place of regular paper if you want a sturdier surface. If you don’t have liquid watercolors, food coloring is a good option.
How to Prep the Butterfly-Themed Preschool Name Activities
We have a lot of colorful butterfly life cycle pasta right now. We used them to make a butterfly sensory bin, as well as a butterfly life cycle necklace. So all we had to do was grab the rest of the materials and we were good to go!
If you don’t have these bits on-hand, grab some pasta and color it:
- First, place the pasta in a bag or container.
- Next, add some liquid watercolors and close the bag.
- Then shake well to disperse the color.
- Finally, let the pasta dry completely.
Related: Butterfly Life Cycle Sensory Bottles
Once the pasta is dry, and you have the rest of the supplies, it’s time to jump into the butterfly name activities for preschool!
Butterfly Name Craft Directions
Let’s take a look at the first butterfly name activity! This one is focused on tracing over the letters in the kids’ names. The children can practice letter formation as they choose which “butterflies” and “caterpillars” to place on each letter of their names.
To begin, write the child’s name on a thick piece of paper or a piece of cardstock. If the student’s name is long, you might need to staple two pieces of paper together.
Next, set out the butterflies (bowtie pasta) and caterpillars (rotini pasta). Have the child trace the first letter with glue, then add pasta as they see fit!
Related: Name Kits
Encourage the child to keep going, letter by letter, until their name is done. This is a great time to talk about letter formation, letter sounds, that we write left to right, and maybe even touch on some butterfly life cycle facts.
Once the names are all done, help your students place them carefully out to dry. When everything is dry, you can post the butterfly name art up on your classroom walls!
Straw and Pasta Butterfly Name Activity Directions
The second of the butterfly name activities for preschool creates individual letter manipulatives that look like butterflies.
To make these, grab some of the colorful “butterfly” pastas – one for each letter in the child’s name. Cut up a paper straw so you have one piece for each butterfly. Your students can help with this, of course! Write a letter on each straw piece until the child’s entire first name is represented. Glue each straw letter onto a piece of butterfly pasta.
Let the child use their butterfly letters to create their name. As with the above butterfly craft name, talk about literacy and science concepts as you go along. The child can make their name, then break it apart, and then remake it to their heart’s content. If the kiddo wants to, they can even glue their butterfly letters to a piece of paper or cardstock to display.
Additional Butterfly Name Activities for Preschool Kids
We had a ton of fun making our names with the colorful dyed pasta. We even tested out making some sight words, too! If your students are ready for that, I suggest you give it a go.
As promised, here are a few other ways you can make names during a butterfly theme. Instead of the pasta, use:
- Butterfly stickers
- Hole punch butterflies
- Butterfly stamps
- Die-cut butterflies
- Kids’ fingerprints made to look like caterpillars
- Even hand-drawn butterflies
So you can see that there are a lot of options! Pick the one that best suits you and your students, and have a blast working on the kids’ names.
Be sure to pin this post for later. And check out my Butterfly Activities Pinterest board while you’re over there.
More Butterfly Literacy Activities
If the butterfly name activities for preschool were a hit, I bet your students would also enjoy the following ideas. Click each link for more information:
- Butterfly Life Cycle Printable Book
- Printable Butterfly Cover Up Alphabet Activity
- Butterfly Playdough Mats
- 10 Little Butterflies Preschool Circle Time Song
- Butterfly Alphabet Matching Cards
Done-for-You Preschool Resources
Planning meaningful lessons for students week after week, all while balancing other teaching responsibilities and a personal life, can be a daunting task. That’s where Preschool Teacher 101 comes in to save you time!
We have over 100 fully-developed lesson plan sets, literacy activities, STEM challenges, dramatic play packs, math games, and more. Click on the images below to check out some that would pair perfectly with the butterfly name crafts:
And be sure to join the waiting list for The Pack from Preschool Teacher 101 today! Our members get access to all of our products, as well as some exclusive resources!
Originally written April 2015.
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