Is it a Flower or Butterfly? Flowers and butterflies have so many common attributes such as beauty, vivid colors, and being ephemeral nature. They are often seen together. When children first notice both, they may be somewhat confused. It helps to point out the attributes that are different, such as that flowers do not fly.
A spring bulb garden started us thinking about summer with flowers and butterflies. Yes! We can’t wait. We have had some lovely weather in Minnesota this March, but of course there is still potential for snow and ice. Some of our worst storms can actually happen in March. At first our plants were not all blooming, because these gardens are intended to delight and surprise.
It was fun to see which flower would bloom next.
It was less fun to see the flowers past their prime. As the grape hyacinths began to wilt, we had a flower arranging tray activity. Water and flowers are so engaging. The vases were fun for the dinner table. Living Montessori Now’s blog has a post all about arranging flowers and the practical life skills that can be incorporated. 
The tragedy of spring bulbs is they do not last very long and soon we had only one left. It was good some primroses were included as we are still enjoying those. 
What about the butterflies? Ah, we could not just summon butterflies as it was winter. Actually, we could not in summer, either. That is part of the problem — butterflies do not hang around so we can explain the differences from flowers. We have previously discussed flowers and butterflies. We even laminated butterfly pictures and tossed them from the deck to catch with our homemade butterfly nets. We have studied the Monarch butterfly life cycle, as well. 
Flower or Butterfly Sorting and Coloring Free PDF
The free PDF today has butterfly and flower cards to sort. These cards may be used with or without the words. Emergent readers can just be told the words as we would not expect them to read the words. If it is more comfortable, simply cut the words off if wanted. Independent readers may read the words. The cards may be used on word walls and also in the writing or science center. flower-or-butterfly-sorting-cards-and-coloring-pages
The coloring pages were fun to do as we dream about summer’s arrival. First, she worked carefully.
Then she shared her finished picture!
I ran the finished butterfly picture through the scanner and printed it on magnetic paper. They are now adorning the refrigerator.
Thank you for reading, Carolyn
