When a Butterfly Goes to School

Written by Laura Purdie Salas
Illustrated by Chloe Niclas
Publisher: Creative Editions, 2025
ISBN: 978-1568463988 14 pages

Description

Classes. Lunch. Quiet time. The routine of school is a common experience for children. However, when a butterfly makes a migratory rest stop outside a school, such a typical day turns extraordinary. Her flashy wings provide a lesson in art. She zips and sips her way through lunch in the garden. Her life story of metamorphosis becomes history in the making. Young readers and observers will delight in watching the day unfold and be encouraged to search for the unexpected in their own lives.

When a butterfly goes to school…
art class is the flash
of her wings.
Black.
Yellow.
Blue.

More for Educators or Writers

My Small Reads Roundup of school poems, including a few not pictured below
My page for my other school-themed book, Clover Kitty Goes to Kittygarten
Make a butterfly kite
Learn about butterflies and moths of North America
All about monarch migration
"Tigers on the Wind" - The Eastern tiger swallowtail (the type featured in When a Butterfly Goes to School)
Art project: coffee filter butterflies
Art project: butterfly suncatchers
Butterfly body parts: an anatomy video & activity sheet
Fun way to show the butterfly life cycle
Watch & listen to this butterfly life cycle song (warning--it might get stuck in your head!), plus try any of the awesome preschool activities here

How this Book Got Started

An editor at Creative Editions approached me to see if I might want to write board books about 1) animal homes and 2) school. Absolutely! For the school-related board book, I was playing with different ways an animal could visit a preschool and experience some of the daily activities. I tried a butterfly, a migrating duck blown off course, and a bear. The butterfly version was the winner, though it still went through several more revisions. And Butterfly began as a monarch, but illustrator Chloe Niclas transformed her into an Eastern tiger swallowtail. So gorgeous!