This is a song about amazing changes that happen as we grow and how we can do things that may seem impossible.  The song and other related activities have the children begin to think about the wonderful changes that have happened to them as they grow. 

This song promotes the important behaviors of initiative including:

• Doing things for himself/herself 
• Trying or asking to try new things or activities 
• Participating actively in make-believe play

Lyrics                              
Butterfly, butterfly flying to a flower.
Butterfly, butterfly here to drink some nectar.
You didn't always have your beautiful wings.
You show us how life is a changing thing.
Once a caterpillar, now a butterfly (butterfly, butterfly).
Bumblebee, bumblebee flying to a flower. 
Bumblebee, bumblebee here to drink some nectar.
They say you couldn't fly with such tiny wings. 
You show us how to do amazing things.
We'll fly you and me, bumble bee.
Fly up to the sky.
I can fly like a butterfly, butterfly, butterfly.
Bumble bee. Bumble bee, bumblebee.
I can fly.

Tips for Parents           

• Ask your child, "Can you think of something you couldn't do when you were a baby that you can do now?  How are little babies like caterpillars and how are big four-year-olds like butterflies?"
• Use a streamer, scarf or piece of ribbon to move during the song.  Alternate between being a butterfly and bumblebee.  Butterfly wings move slowly and bumblebee wings very fast.  
• Butterfly Mime - Talk about how butterflies start out as caterpillars.  How do caterpillars move?  Pretend be caterpillars and crawl around the room.  Then fold up into a ball and pretend to be in a cocoon.  Slowly break out of the cocoon and stretch the wings.  Then fly around the room! 
• Bumble Bee Brainstorm - Draw a bumblebee with stubby little wings and a fat body.  If it was an airplane it probably couldn't fly.  Have you ever done something that you didn't think you could do and you were surprised that you could do it?
• Nature Walk - Take a nature walk and catch specimens for a terrarium.  Discuss the importance of insects to our world and desensitize children's fear of insects.  Then release them on a trip to park or in the backyard.

The Research Behind This Song

• A child's brain is like a butterfly transformed from a caterpillar.  A child's brain is developing so fast in the first three years.  A child is born with approximately fifty trillion synapses connecting one hundred billion neurons or brain cells.  While that sounds like a lot, by the time she is three, those 50 trillion have grown to 1,000 trillion!

Books to Read with Children
When I Was Little by Jamie Lee Curtisto
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

This song is part of our Songs of Confidence series, which consist of the following twelve song titles:
I've Got Two
I Can Do It
I'm Gonna Find a Way
Let's Play
Butterfly, Bumblebee
I Can Write Any Song I Want
I Am a Rubber Band
It's Up to Me
L-I-G-H-T
Slow Groove
Something Beautiful
Up the Mountain