I cannot believe how close it is to the end of the school year! We are in the home stretch!! So close, yet so far....
Not only do I love this time of year because summer is approaching, but also because we do life cycles in our classes. We do chicks every year, and have added in frogs, butterflies, and plants in recent years. It is one of the most engaging times of the year since we actually get to have chicks, butterflies, and plants in our classroom! It is so fun for the students to actually see what we are learning with their own eyes. It is no longer an abstract concept--they want to know EVERYTHING about our new 'pets'! Therefore, instead of me leading the investigation and research, STUDENTS are asking the questions! WIN!
This year we started with butterflies. We actually started VERY early with butterflies....as in our caterpillars arrived in February! Oopsies! They were delivered on a Friday weeks before we were expecting them, so my teaching partner and I spent our plan period that day frantically changing the next week's lesson plans and getting our butterfly unit ready instead (Sorry Dr. Suess! We will celebrate you next year, we promise!)
All in all it was huge a success though!
I have heard of a few places to order these from. We order ours from NatureGifts.com. The kit with 5 caterpillars and a butterfly net is $19.95, and then to reorder just the caterpillars each year is only $14.95.
The students were ecstatic when they first saw the caterpillars. They love to watch them. This is what one student chose to do almost every day for early finisher time.
It makes my teacher heart SO happy when they are so engaged!
When they first arrive, they are in a cup that has their food at the bottom and are pretty tiny at first:
Caterpillars work great to have in the classroom because they change so quickly. Each morning the students were so excited to go see how the caterpillars had changed. We kept daily journals where they write and draw about them each day and write what life cycle stage we are in.
I love keeping journals because it gives them a purpose for their writing. I see growth in writing simply because of the effort they are putting in due to their interest in the topic.
Within a week or so the caterpillars are HUGE. And I'm going to be honest with you....pretty gross.
And they just get grosser and grosser (I know that's not a word but it felt like it fit here). Students always want to know what that 'stuff' at the bottom of the cup is and if it is their 'poop'. One of kids in my teaching partner's class made this journal entry one day:
I died laughing! Hilarious!
When we first got our caterpillars, we decided we needed to know ALL about them if we were going to take care of them! So we started by reading an information book that I made. It teaches all about butterflies--what they are, what they eat, parts of a butterfly, their habitat, etc. It has really pretty pictures of butterflies that the students love.
This is an example of a page from the book. I project it on my screen and we read and discuss together.
We then spent the next couple weeks learning all we could about parts of caterpillars/butterflies, life cycle, etc. and doing fun butterfly activities as we watched the caterpillars go through their life cycle.
Within a couple weeks, the caterpillars had formed chrysalises.
When the caterpillars have all formed their chrysalises, you move them to the net and wait for the butterflies to emerge. This is where the waiting gets long for kiddos. It seems like forever before the butterflies emerge! (In reality it is 1-2 weeks.)
Since we had gotten our butterflies WAY early, the timing was off---our butterflies emerged during our spring break! So sadly, the students did not get to see it. However, they were VERY excited when they returned to school and saw the butterflies in the net!
We kept them for a couple days to observe and journal about them. Then we let them go at recess one day.
Even with all the craziness and surprise delivery, I would say our butterfly unit was a success! The students learned so much and had so much fun. I am still amazed at their vocabulary when talking about the butterflies!
We used my All About Butterflies unit. It is perfect for a K-2 butterfly study (with or without actually having butterflies in the classroom). Every activity you saw above plus SO much more is included.
Click on the picture below to check it out!
Thanks for taking a peek at our Spring!! Up next--Chicks!!
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