Dona Herweck Rice

A Butterfly's Life is an informational, picture book that is best suited for younger children. The grades would range from Kindergarten to 1st grade.

This book explains exactly what the title entails, a butterfly's life. It walks you through the different stages a butterfly will encounter starting with a mother butterfly who lays eggs. Once the mother lays the eggs, the caterpillars will hatch, and become adult caterpillars. Once the caterpillars have reached the appropriate maturity, the show more will then form a pupa. They will stay in that pupa until it is time to become a beautiful butterfly. I enjoy this book because it is very simple to understand, with excellent photos that illustrate the cycles very well. This book can be used in different ways but I would want to use this book as a mentor text in a way that wouldn't necessarily be considered conventional. I would use it to show growth or change within my students from the start of the year to the end of the year. I would use this book to have students illustrate their own butterfly. The butterfly's wings could be anything they wanted, in the pattern of a basketball or two smiley faces on each wing. The reason I would allow the students to create a butterfly in whatever they wanted is because the butterfly should tell me something about the student. I would want to be able to look at the butterfly and know exactly what that student is trying to portray. I think this is a good activity to use with butterflies because they start off as something and then turn into something completely different, a symbol of change. I would emphasize the importance of growth to my students, that growing is apart of every persons and animals life. I would have my students create one butterfly at the beginning of the year and then have them draw a new butterfly at the end of the year, to show how they have changed or grown throughout the school year. I would want them to compare the two butterflies they have drawn and be able to verbalize the visible differences between each butterfly. I think this type of activity will help students be able to make internal connections with themselves, even though they are still very young. show less

Summary: Pack your bags kiddos and take an adventure around the world with beautiful photography and information about some of the worlds most famous places that are far away and we may never see in person but this book makes it feel close!

Personal reaction: I want to travel the world even more now! I can see how this would spark interest for children who have never left their town state or country. Beautiful photos and cool facts.

Classroom extensions: Have the children pick one place from show more the book they would love to visit most. pick one place as a classroom and have a party themed in their tradition if applicable, bring my treasures from around the world to open up discussion about different places beyond our backyard. show less

I loved that from the very beginning, the book engaged readers by incorporating a picture from Horton Hears a Who! This is a movie that many kids have seen and being able to recognize the image and make connections to things they already know really helps engage the reader and help them learn. The rest of the book is focused on how big space is, how big Earth is in relation to how big space is, and characteristics of the sun. I have noticed that in many of these books, there is an activity show more at the end which I love. The book teaches the reader something and then gives them the instructions of how to model it themselves. SO cool!!! show less

Visually, the book is appealing to me, and it allows realistic and informative imagery to students learning the topic for the first time. Metamorphosis is a big topic learned in science for elementary kids around first grade. These books will be interesting and relatable for kids who have probably already seen butterflies.