Wednesday 3 June 2015

Butterflies


What do you think, see and wonder about caterpillars?
Naming the Sluglie family (Gold Miner, Sleepy, Lazy....)
In early May the butterfly larva arrived in our classroom. At first students thought the larva were little baby slugs because they were tiny little black creatures. The larva quickly grew as they ate all of the food in the containers.  We observed the larva, named the larva and used loose parts to make our own caterpillars.
Re telling The Hungry Caterpillar with loose parts.
We watched a movie about metamorphosis from Discover Education.  We learned that butterflies have complete metamorphosis.  They start from an egg, then larva, then chrysalis, and then adult butterfly. We watched for the signs that the larva was going to form their chrysalis.  One morning when we arrived to school we found that the larva (caterpillars) had climbed up to the top of the containers and made J shapes. We observed and wondered about what was happening  to the larva. The larva stayed really still in the J shape and then a chrysalis formed. After 6 days the butterflies emerged from the chrysalis. We have been watching, thinking and wondering about the butterflies. We have even named them. Next week we will have a butterfly release party.
Butterfly Exploration Centres

The task was using the materials on the table to make a 3D butterfly.