Free Monarch Butterfly Printables: 6 Worksheets for K-1st Grade

These free monarch butterfly printables land right in the middle of fall migration season. The six worksheets cover counting, phonics, handwriting, patterns, coloring, and writing, all built around a monarch’s world: an egg, a wing, a map, the sun, and a milkweed flower.

Kindergartners and first graders are the target age, and preschoolers can join for the counting and coloring pages. Each page is a quick one, done in a single sitting.

Free for your family, co-op, or classroom. Prints on regular letter paper. Every page is checked for mistakes before we post it.

What's in the monarch butterfly printables

1. Counting butterflies

Five rows of monarch butterflies, from two up to six, in mixed order. Kids count the butterflies in each row and write the total in the box.

Make it easier: Point to each butterfly and count out loud together before writing the number.
Make it harder: Ask which row has the most butterflies, or how many rows three and five have together.

2. Word match

Draw a line from each picture to its word: butterfly wings, a map, the sun, an egg on a leaf, and a milkweed flower. Early readers can sound out the m in map or the s in sun, then check the rest.

Make it easier: Say egg, wing, map, sun, and flower aloud together before drawing any lines.
Make it harder: Hide the words and ask your child to spell each one just from the picture.

3. Tracing

The same five words again. Kids trace the dotted word egg, wing, map, sun, or flower, then write it again below.

Make it easier: Trace just the first letter of egg, wing, or map before tracing the whole word.
Make it harder: Cover the dotted words and ask your child to write egg, wing, map, sun, and flower from memory.

4. Patterns: what comes next?

Four rows, each with its own rule: butterfly/flower alternating, two flowers and a butterfly repeating, a sun and two butterflies repeating, then a butterfly, a flower, and a sun repeating. Kids draw what comes next in the box.

Make it easier: Build row one with two small toys or stickers before your child draws it.
Make it harder: Ask your child to name each rule, then invent one.

5. Coloring page

Three monarch butterflies resting on tall milkweed plants under a sun and a few clouds. One of our most requested butterfly coloring pages: bold, simple lines for small hands, with open space for crayons.

Make it harder: Color each butterfly’s wings orange and black, then color the milkweed flowers pink.

6. Draw and write

Kids draw where they would fly, then finish the sentence “If I could fly far away like a monarch, I would see…” on the lines below.

Make it easier: Your child tells you where they’d fly, you write it lightly, and they trace over it.
Make it harder: Write two sentences about where they’d fly, checking for a capital letter and period.

What kids practice with these monarch worksheets

• Counting and writing numbers. Kids count monarch butterflies up to six and write the matching number.
• Phonics. Real patterns worth pointing out: the doubled consonant in egg, the ng ending in wing, the fl blend and ow vowel team in flower, and the short, simple map and sun as easy CVC words to build confidence.
• Handwriting. Tracing the dotted word, then writing egg, wing, map, sun, or flower without help.
• Patterns. Four butterfly-and-flower rules, moving from a two-item repeat to a three-item repeat.

A simple 5-day monarch butterfly plan

1. Monday: Look for butterflies or bees outside, then do the counting page.
2. Tuesday: Point to the wing, map, sun, egg, and flower pictures, then do the word match page.
3. Wednesday: Do the tracing page; point out the ow sound in flower.
4. Thursday: Line up small toys to build a pattern, then do the patterns page.
5. Friday: Look up monarch migration on a real map, color the page, and finish the draw-and-write page.

Using the set in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade

Preschool: Do the counting page, the coloring page, and the first two pattern rows; leave the writing for later.

Kindergarten: Move through the set in order, no changes needed.

First grade: Try the harder option each page and ask for two sentences on the last page.

How monarchs migrate

Every fall, monarch butterflies east of the Rocky Mountains leave the United States and Canada and fly toward Mexico, some traveling as far as 3,000 miles. They spend the winter clustered by the millions on oyamel fir trees in the mountains of central Mexico, where the cool, humid air keeps them safe until spring. Monarchs lay their eggs only on milkweed, which is the one plant their caterpillars can eat, so a milkweed flower like the one on the coloring page is part of the story too.

Monarch butterfly books to read with this set

• Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• Monarch and Milkweed by Helen Frost

Printing tips and answer key

• Print only the pages you need for the day; each one stands alone.
• Slide the counting, tracing, and patterns pages into page protectors to wipe and reuse.
• If your child likes to paint rather than color, print the butterfly page on cardstock first.

Answers: Counting, top to bottom: 5, 4, 2, 6, 3 (in mixed order). Patterns, top to bottom: row 1 (butterfly, flower, butterfly, flower, butterfly) → flower; row 2 (flower, flower, butterfly, flower, flower) → butterfly; row 3 (sun, butterfly, butterfly, sun, butterfly) → butterfly; row 4 (butterfly, flower, sun, butterfly, flower) → sun.

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