Monarch Pattern Notes
Begin with the open-winged butterfly and choose a pattern you notice. The caterpillar and flower pictures add stripes and leaf lines; you can try the activity with just one page.
3 coloring pages · Mixed difficulty
What you need
- One or more of the three printed coloring pages
- A blank sheet of paper
- Crayons or colored pencils
Coloring pages in this activity
Try the activity
Find a mark in the picture
On the open-winged butterfly, look for the circles along a wing edge. In the other pictures, point to the caterpillar’s stripes or a leaf’s branching lines. Choose one detail rather than counting every mark.
Make a small pattern sampler
On the blank sheet, draw a short row of dots, a few bands or one line with smaller lines branching off. Try the marks your own way; they do not need to match the printed picture.
Try a color combination
Use two colors on your sampler, then repeat the combination in a few open areas of your chosen picture. Leave the printed dark lines as they are, and skip any tiny areas you do not want to fill.
Share one choice
Place the sampler beside the coloring page. Point to the mark that gave you the idea and show where you used your colors. A grown-up can write a short caption if you would like one.
Another idea
Add a different mark from a second picture to your sampler. You can point, draw or talk about it; there is no need to finish all three pages.