Blogger / 3 July, 2023 / Nanny Anita

Butterfly Life Cycle Sensory Tray

BB’s nursery was meant to be looking at butterflies during the summer term. His teachers sent through videos of the caterpillars they had and how they were transitioning into butterflies. They also sent through a couple of butterfly related activities for us to do at home. To go along with all those activities I made up a butterfly life cycle sensory tray for him to play with.

Make sure you follow my sensory board on Pinterest for more ideas. Don’t forget to save the pin for later.

To make your own butterfly life cycle sensory tray you will need:

• Coloured rice
• Spoons
• Tray
• Small world butterfly, caterpillar, and chrysalis
• Smalls balls (for eggs)
• Rocks
• Flowers

We have had some small plastic butterfly, caterpillar, and chrysalis in our small world box for years. I am so happy that I have finally been able to get them out for this butterfly life cycle sensory tray.

Fill a tray with some coloured rice. Just a reminder, if you store your rice correctly between uses, it can last for years. I first made the rice we used back when YC was a toddler.

To dye your rice, add it to a container with a few drops of food colouring, ink or paint. Close it all up and give it a shake. When it looks like everything is pretty evenly coated, decant it onto a tray and leave it to dry for a while.

When the rice is ready add it to your play tray, throw in some wooden spoons for digging, a couple of rocks for the butterflies to sit on, some fake (or real flowers), and finally the small world figures.

We had our butterfly sensory tray out for about a week. I left it on the side for people to come and play with as they pleased. BB loved to bury the small balls and pretend they would hatch into caterpillars. Then he would re-enact the Very Hungry Caterpillar.

If you enjoyed this butterfly life cycle sensory tray be sure to check out my cloud dough imaginative play and mosaic play dough.

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