Kid’s Corner
Fun Butterfly Activities (for kids of all ages)
“Glib Kids” Stories
Included below are “Jungle Rumble”, “The Silly Butterfly”, “The Crooning Caterpillar”, “School Daze”, “The Butterflies Go on Vacation”, and “Madame Butterfly”. Simply copy and paste the text into your computer’s word program, and print out.
Play Glib Kids with your friends (or enjoy them by yourself)! Here’s how you get started: ask each person in the group for a part of speech or other word as indicated (noun, verb, adjective, beverage, time of day, etc.). [Just ask for the part of speech … don’t read the story to your friends … that will spoil the fun!] Write the word in the space provided. Repeat the process until all the spaces are filled. Read the completed silly story back and be prepared to have your funny bone tickled!
Begin with one of our “starters … ” Just randomly choose a word that fits each suggested category. (Don’t try to “pick” a word that makes sense or goes with the story.) Be creative, be silly, just make sure and have fun. The stories can be read orally (spoken) or printed out. Either way will provide a lot of fun!
Take a look at the following example:
Jungle Rumble
"Our search began on a steamy, [adjective ] summer morning. We were well prepared for our journey. Our supplies included [beverage ], sunblock, binoculars, a notepad and a [noun ]. We arrived at our destination without a problem. The woods ahead showed promise...sunny areas mixed with cool shade. [Adjective ] vines encircled sturdy tree trunks. Colorful flowers [verb ending in "ed" ] here and there. Suddenly, we spotted it. Right there, in front of our [body part ], was a real “wild” butterfly...a [jungle animal ] swallowtail!"
Now look at a “finished” story...pretty wild, huh?
"Our search began on a steamy, purple summer morning. We were well prepared for our journey. Our supplies included milk , sunblock, binoculars, a notepad and a cat . We arrived at our destination without a problem. The woods ahead showed promise...sunny areas mixed with cool shade. Bumpy vines encircled sturdy tree trunks. Colorful flowers walked here and there. Suddenly, we spotted it. Right there, in front of our ear , was a real wild butterfly...a hippopotamus swallowtail!"
You can redo each story over and over again, just adding new words in the suggested categories. What are you waiting for...start creating!
THE SILLY BUTTERFLY
Once upon a time, there was a silly butterfly. All of his butterfly friends thought he was [adjective] , but he didn’t care...he just liked to have fun. Every [time of day ] when all the other butterflies were sunning themselves to warm up and get ready for the day, he would sleep late. He always slept late, because he spent every night playing with the fireflies. By the time the silly butterfly got up, all of his other butterfly [plural noun ] had left for the day. Instead of going from flower to flower for nectar, he would stop at people’s homes and ring their [plural noun ]. He would flutter around hoping they would offer him something sweet...cake, cookies or some [kind of food ]. Most of the time, people would just shoo him away. That didn’t stop the silly butterfly...he’d just [verb ] around town until he found someone having a picnic. He would wait until they weren’t looking and then he’d swoop down on anything [adjective ] they were eating. Most of the time the people didn’t even notice. After he had eaten his fill, he’d [verb ] around the fields and the forests, but he always flew upside down, sideways and backwards. Sometimes, if he wasn’t paying attention, he’d fly right into a brick wall! Ouch , that would hurt! But that didn’t stop the silly butterfly. He’d just get right back up and start flying again. Later in the afternoon, he would head back to his home and take a [noun ]. He needed to be rested up to meet with his firefly friends later in the evening!
THE CROONING CATERPILLAR
Crosby, the crooning caterpillar, loved to sing. He would rather sing than [verb ]. The other caterpillars would sit around in the garden, [adverb ] eating the [adjective ], green leaves. But not Crosby...he wanted to be famous...he wanted to be a singer! Crosby tried to sing along with the birds in the morning, but they always flew away. Crosby wanted to sing with the cicadas in the evening, but they would soon scamper off into the tall [noun ]. Even the bull frogs wouldn’t sing with Crosby...they’d bellow at him and tell him to move along. But Crosby never gave up. He realized he could never reach his dream of stardom if he stayed in the [place ] with the other caterpillars. So one day, he packed up his bags, said “good-bye” and began squiggling down the road. His journey took [period of time ], but he finally made it to the big city! The city was so different from the town where he grew up in...it was crowded and [adjective ]. Crosby wondered if he should give up his dream and head back home. Late one evening, he was wandering around the city park. He was tired and hungry, so he stopped to munch on a [adjective ], sweet leaf. As Crosby was chewing away, he heard a song. At first, it was soft, but as the music continued, the singing got louder and the beat grew stronger! Crosby could hardly believe his [body part ]! He was hearing other creatures sing like he wanted to. As quickly as his long wiggly body would move, he traveled around the [place ] until he found where the music was coming from. At that moment, Crosby ’s [body parts ] lit up...there on an old wooden bench was a band. Crosby couldn’t help himself...he jumped up to join the band and began to sing! And that’s how Crosby became part of Buggy Holly and the Crickets !
SCHOOL DAZE
Bonnie Butterfly couldn’t believe the summer was over and it was time to return to school. Where had the time gone to? That first morning when her alarm clock rang, Bonnie was too tired to get out of the [piece of furniture] . She reached for her alarm clock and [past tense verb] it across the room! BOING! The alarm clock hit the [noun] with a big thud. Oh well, as long as she had to get up and pick up the clock, Bonnie might as well get ready for school. Besides trying to figure out what to wear to school that day, Bonnie had to plan what to have for lunch. She made a sandwich with some peanut butter and [kind of food] ; added some [kind of vegetable] chips and a great big piece of [kind of fruit] . Bonnie quickly packed it all into her lunchbox and headed out the door. Just then, she looked at the kitchen clock and realized she was twenty [period of time] late. Oh no! Bonnie must have missed the bus on her first day of school! What was she going to do? She ran into the house, picked up the telephone and called her friend [name] . Before you could say “metamorphosis,” Bonnie’s friend was sitting in the driveway. Bonnie jumped into the [type of vehicle] and away they went. They pulled up in front of the school only to realize it was Saturday !
THE BUTTERFLIES GO ON VACATION
Mr. And Mrs. Butterfly had worked hard all year … they decided it was time to take a trip. But where to go? Sitting around their host plant one evening, munching away, they called their two children, [boy’s name] and [girl’s name] and asked them where they would like to go. “Six Milkweeds,” yelled out [boy’s name from above] . “No, no...I want to go to CaterWorld,” cried out [girl’s name from above]. “What to do?” thought Mr. And Mrs. Butterfly? After much thought, they finally decided to hop into their [color] beetle bug car and head out on a road trip! Their first stop was Mount Monarch . How grand it was to see the giant [something found in nature] carved with the likenesses of four great butterflies: George Monarchington, Abe Lincarch, Thomas Monerson and Teddy Roosearchvelt! Mr. And Mrs. Butterfly were very impressed, but the kids were already in the car, honking the [car part] ready to move along! Their next stop was the sandy beaches of Los Anglewings. Here, the kids were happy. They puddled around all day while Mom and Dad basked in the sun. Later in the day, they played beach [name of sport] and had a picnic of fried [kind of food] and [kind of drink] . The next day, they jumped into their beetle bug car and hit the road again. They visited the Buckeye state and spent some time at a family reunion. Their days there were spent playing [name of a game] , watching [nouns] sparkle in the night sky and drinking glass after glass of [adjective] nectar. Soon it was time to head home. The Butterfly family enjoyed their many adventures, but they all agreed, there’s no place like your host plant!
MADAME BUTTERFLY
Madame Butterfly was getting ready to host a big party. It was her birthday...she was going to be [number] years old! Before the big day, she had many things to do. She had to send out invitations...she picked out her favorites...ones with [cartoon character] on the front. She filled them out and mailed them to all of her friends. Madame Butterfly then began to decorate her house. She bought lots of supplies. Madame opened up the bag of [plural noun] and began to blow them up. Next, she took out the [color] crepe paper streamers and hung them around the house. Then she set up the games everyone would play. The first game on the list was Pin the tail on the [name of animal] . Madame Butterfly’s second game was Spin the [noun] .The final game was to have each guest wear a blindfold and take a swing at the [adjective] piñata hanging from the [part of the house] . Madame Butterfly set the table. She had [flavor] cake and [kind of fruit] punch. Soon the guests came fluttering in. Beyond a doubt, it was the best birthday Madame Butterfly ever had!
