2024 Step UP! Butterflies SoBA

The Althea house is all butterflies and bees this summer as we kickoff our first 2024 STEP UP! with SoBA (a Song, a Book and Art) session for kindergarten and 1st graders (now RISING 2nd and 3rd graders). We can already see the growth in their literacy! 

In this session there was a special surprise! Dr. E.J. usually Zoomed in from Iowa where she lives and works now but this time, she Zoomed in from her home country of South Korea where she is vacationing for the summer! And was she excited to see the children as the butterflies filled her background screen! 

There was something different about the children too! During this session, the children sat on colorful yoga mats, instead of sitting in chairs, while they sang along with the captioned video of the butterfly song and sat in simple yoga poses that mimicked the song lyrics. They also had printed lyrics to take home. 

The story of “Kai the Butterfly” was presented on two large screens and the children were happy to take turns with Ms Pat, Ms Linda and Dr. E.J. reading and discussing the book. Kai’s journey taught them the importance of butterflies to the health and beauty of flowering plants and the importance of flowers and pollen to their daily diet. Dr. E.J. then taught the children how to make an origami butterfly which they did with ease and then decorated them using crayons and glue-on accessories. Wow were these young students creative!! They each were given a snack bag and an high interest book of various topics at their reading level. 

Activity Materials:

• Kai de Butterfly, a book by Orit Brown

• Fly Like a Butterfly Yogapalooza YouTube video

• Fly Like a Butterfly music lyrics

• Origami Butterfly Kids Crafts by I Dig Pinterest