Folkmanis has outdone itself again with the new Monarch Life Cycle Puppet whose 3 zippers reveal each stage of metamorphosis from caterpillar to chrysalis to Monarch butterfly with an unzip, tuck and zip! When I showed it to a first grade teacher she was so excited to share it with her class as she said, “We get our butterflies in a few weeks. This will help introduce them to the process.” Indeed her class loved the puppet and the added hands-on and visual reinforcement of the magic of the butterfly’s life cycle helped support learning. The striped caterpillar transforms to a silky green and gold chrysalis which finally turns into the magnificent orange and black butterfly ready for hands to slip into the wings and take flight. Having spent many lessons teaching kids about the life cycle of butterflies, I was always looking for intriguing materials to engage kids and inspire good writing about the stages. This puppet is perfect as kids can’t wait to manipulate each stage and unzip the next one to tell the story. What an amazing tool for learning and language development.
Available at Amazon. Click here
