What You Will Need

A Garden Bed or Container for Plants

Garden Stakes (optional)

Host Plants

Garden Shovel or Trowel

Gardening Gloves

Gardening Apron (optional)

How to Create the Butterfly Nursery

A butterfly nursery is a garden bed or container full of host plants for baby butterflies – in other words, food for hungry caterpillars! How do you get baby butterflies into the garden? By providing food for adult butterflies! The host plant list names a few that feed both caterpillars and butterflies, but you can find additional butterfly favorites in Preschool Nature – Create a Wildlife Observatory.

Step 1: Decide where your butterfly nursery will be. Will you be planting a container garden, or do you have room in an existing garden bed? Measure the area you have available for planting, whether in the ground or in a pot.

Step 2: Choose your plants. Grab your list of host plants and head to a local nursery or garden center with your preschooler. To create visual interest in your garden or container, you'll want to choose tall, medium, and short plants with varying bloom periods. Start out by walking around the garden center with your preschooler. Locate the plants from the host list and let your preschooler explore them. Are the flowers pretty? Does it smell nice? The larger the role preschoolers play in plant selection, the more interested they'll be in the butterfly nursery.

Step 3: After purchasing your plants, arrange them in the garden bed or container while they're still in pots. This will help you and your preschooler visualize what the garden will eventually look like. It also allows you to move plants around until you've found the perfect arrangement. *Tip: Plant the tallest host plants in the center of your bed, or in the back of a border. Next will be the medium plants, then finish with the shortest plants around the edge of the bed or in the front of a border.

Step 4: Get dirty! Preschoolers love digging in dirt, so gardening is a great hobby for them. Hand them a trowel and let them dig away. If you're using a container, they can still "dig" from the potting soil bag while helping you fill the container. Plant the host plants in the arrangement you settled on in Step 3. You may need to stake the taller plants to keep them from falling over.

Step 5: Water well, then relax with your preschooler and watch for butterflies! Take your preschooler out daily to check on the plants. Peek at the underside of leaves – do you see any butterfly eggs?

Other Ways to Enjoy Butterflies With Your Preschooler

If you don't have room in your garden bed or a place to put a container garden, you can still encourage your preschooler's interest in nature. Use the host plant list to teach your preschoolers about the different phases of a butterfly's life. You can also take them to the garden center to learn about host plants or walk them through your existing garden in search of butterfly eggs. Visit www.ButterflyBushes.com for more information on butterfly host plants.

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Helpful Tips for Parents

• Outdoor science (nature observation, weather tracking, garden study) is as rigorous as lab science and has the added benefit of physical activity and environmental connection.

• Science supplies don't need to be purchased. Vinegar, baking soda, cornstarch, salt, food coloring, and dish soap cover most preschool science experiments adequately.

• Visit science museums, planetariums, and nature centers regularly. Real encounters with scientific environments are more motivating than any experiment at home.

• Give children real tools: a real magnifying glass, real measuring cups, a real thermometer. Toy versions deliver less sensory and intellectual feedback than actual instruments.

Frequently Asked Questions

My preschooler loses interest in the experiment before it's done. What do I do?

Most preschool attention spans support 5–15 minutes of structured science activity. Design experiments with quick visible results — the baking soda + vinegar reaction, the pepper + soap demonstration, the oobleck — rather than long-waiting experiments as a first experience. Save multi-day experiments (crystal growing, plant sprouting) for when the child has developed patience and the routine of checking daily has been established through previous successful experiments. End an experiment early rather than forcing continuation — a positive incomplete experience invites return more than a forced completion.

Related reading: See also our science experiments at home and our nature walks guide for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 💬 Science Vocabulary — Science introduces children to precise vocabulary — observe, predict, hypothesis, dissolve, absorb, transparent — that dramatically expands language range and supports the academic vocabulary children need in school.
• 🏗️ Engineering Thinking — Testing structures, materials, and designs to see what works develops engineering intuition — the practical understanding of forces, materials, and design that underlies all physical construction and problem solving.
• 📝 Recording & Documentation — Drawing what they observe, recording measurements, and noting results gives children their first experience of scientific documentation — and connects science to literacy and numeracy in an authentic context.
• 🔍 Observation Skills — Paying close attention to what happens during an experiment — noting colors, textures, movements, and changes — builds the observational precision that all scientific and analytical work requires.

By Charlene Haukom

What preschooler isn't fascinated by butterflies? With their big, bright wings, it's hard not be drawn to them. Creating a butterfly nursery will teach preschoolers all about butterflies – and a lot about gardening, too!