Meeting the Caterpillars

Our caterpillars came a little earlier than we had planned so it really was a surprise to get those little guys!  The children were thrilled at seeing the caterpillars who were no more than a centimeter long and about as thick as a pencil lead.  The children looked at the caterpillars in their shipping container but did not get a good view until the next day when I was able to have the butterfly center set up.

          When the children arrived at school the next day, they found some of the caterpillars in small vials and some in a plastic aquarium with some tree branches.  Both the aquarium and the vials had mushy, yellow food at the bottom.  We decided this year that we would try rearing some caterpillars in a more natural environment than the tiny, little vials you receive from the company.  In the past I have had some bad luck with the caterpillars growing too big for their vials and I have found that the children can’t observe them so well in those containers.  However, we kept some in the vials just in case the more natural aquarium setting didn’t work.

          The vials and aquarium were set up on a counter with some butterfly pictures and some butterfly toys.  I displayed plastic models of caterpillars, a chrysalis, and butterflies.  I also had a foam puzzle that displayed the life cycle of a butterfly. The most enjoyed item on the counter was a magnifying glass that the children used to observe the caterpillars up close.

          Watching the caterpillars led naturally into a discussion about them.  I encouraged the children to come up with questions that they had about caterpillars and butterflies.  We wrote down the questions during a language experience activity and saved them to answer at the end of our study.

Classroom Display

          Aside from the display on the counter, I began a bulletin board display.  I used the title “Waiting for Wings” and read the children the story by Lois Ehlert.  I displayed charts of the life cycle on the bulletin board.  The first project that the children did was make caterpillars out of egg cartons.  Each student was given an egg carton and was allowed to paint it.  Then the children were given 2 short pipe cleaners and 2 pony beads that they used to make antennas.  They stuck the antennas into the egg carton and ta da, they had a caterpillar to put up on the bulletin board.

          On Monday of the next week I came back to school to find that all the caterpillars had made their chrysalides.  Before the children got to school, I put each caterpillar into a paper bag and hung them back up on the bulletin board.  When the children arrived they noticed the chrysalides in the cages and that their caterpillars had also turned into chrysalides!

          It was the next Monday that the children and I came back to school to find almost all of the butterflies emerged and fluttering about.  At this point each of the children made some butterfly wings.  Each child was given pre-cut finger paint paper.  We observed the butterflies and discovered that both wings were the same.  We discussed using the finger paints to create the same design on each side of the wings.  We also discussed the option of mixing colors (I only gave red, yellow, and blue paint).  Once dry, the caterpillars were retrieved from their paper bags and fastened to the wings, which were then put onto the bulletin board.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

          “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle was a story we did a lot of work with.  After reading the story with the children as a read aloud and then as a shared reading, the children were given story telling props to use during center time.  The children retold the story with a flannel board kit and with a puppet kit.  Later I gave the children papers with 6 small boxes.  In each box was a part of the story written in words.  The children were instructed to add pictures to the boxes and then cut the boxes apart.  The tricky part was putting the story together in the correct order.  The children had a number of clues to use to put the book together.  They had to look for the title page first and the last page showed the butterfly.  In the middle they had to look for the day of the week, or the number indicating how many of each food item the caterpillar ate, or the size of the caterpillar on the page. 

          The final activity we did with this book was using a chart titled “real” and another chart that was titled “make believe.”  We went through the book page by page and used our knowledge about caterpillars to decide which events could really happen and which events would not happen in real life.  This was an activity in critical thinking and was also a language experience activity.  I introduced the words “true” and “false” to the children at this time.

Butterfly Math

          Each child was given a construction paper leaf and 10 small, white lima beans.  I did not call the beans by their name, instead I told the children that they were butterfly eggs.  I told the children that they were going to help me tell a story with their eggs and leaf.  I began the story by locking my thumbs together on both hands and flapping my fingers like a butterfly.  I then made up a story: ”Once their was a butterfly fluttering about happily (children copy my butterfly).  One day she decided that it would be a good idea to lay some eggs, so she flew around and found a nice looking, green leaf.  She chose to put her eggs on the leaf so that the baby caterpillars would have something to eat right away.  The butterfly laid 8 eggs on her leaf. (Children count out 6 eggs to put on the leaf).  Then she flew away for she knew that the caterpillars would know what to do.  A little while later another butterfly came and landed on the same leaf!  She too wanted to lay some eggs.  This butterfly only laid 3 eggs on the leaf.  How many eggs were on the leaf?  Then something terrible happened, a huge wind storm came up (children create wind by blowing).  5 of the eggs blew off the leaf.  When the butterflies came back, how many eggs did they find on the leaf?

          After this story, I made up a couple of others involving other insects finding the eggs and some of the eggs hatching and a certain number of caterpillars crawling away.  The children enjoyed this and they enjoyed making up their own stories at a center.

          We also did a graphing activity that involved collecting data in the form of a tally chart and then graphing the information.  The graph was titled “What is Your Favorite Insect.”  I gave the students a paper with a section for the tallies and a section for the graph.  As a class we did the tally chart allowing each student to tell which insect was their favorite.  The children got excited about the results right away and began predicting why the butterflies had the most tallies (they are beautiful) and why the bees had the fewest tallies (they sting you).  I then demonstrated how to change the information into a bar graph (we had done a number of other graphing activities in our class prior to this) and how to use the underlined words in the question section to figure out what their answer would be.  The children went to the tables and completed their graphs and answered the questions.

Writing

          The first writing activity occurred shortly after receiving the caterpillars in our classroom and was a journal activity.  The children already knew how to read and write a number of sight words and had lots of practice looking around the classroom for words they need in their writing.  Before writing, we brainstormed some stories/sentences that they may wish to write.  Then we wrote some extra words on the board that they thought they might need to use.  They were sent to their journals with instructions to write about butterflies.

Insects or Not?

          Children tend to use the word “bug” for any creepy crawly.  One of my objectives of this study was for them to know what an insect is and for them to be able to use the word insect in their speech.  Caterpillars do not seem to be an insect when you look at them due to their legs, so before learning about insects we explored the parts of a caterpillar.  I showed a picture of a caterpillar to the students.  First I talked about their eyes and how the caterpillar needed 12 eyes.  I then used my pencil to write numbers on the caterpillars body sections.  Next we counted the legs and found lots of them.  We noticed that there are 6 legs up front.  I explained that these are the legs and the rest are called “prolegs.”  Finally we added hair to the caterpillar’s body.

          The next day I brought a basket of plastic bug toys and a book called “Insects” by Susan Canizares.  I read the book to the children and we learned that insects have 6 legs and 3 body parts: a head, a thorax, and an abdomen.  I showed the children a ladybug toy and we counted the legs and pointed out and named the body parts.  Then I started a pile of insects.  Next I found a frog in the basket.  We saw how it only had 4 legs and only 2 body parts.  I started a pile of not insects.  Each child had a chance to take a bug out of the basket and out loud, identify how many legs, label the body parts and place the bug in the correct pile.  The basket of bugs was then left out for the children to use at centers.  When we got to the caterpillar we counted the legs (not the prolegs) and we discovered that there was a head, that the thorax was the part with the 6 legs, and that the abdomen was the part with the prolegs.

Other Bug Art

I found some bug-print paper and the children used this paper to create their own bugs and insects.  I supplied the printed paper, other colored paper, glue, scissors, markers, crayons, and pencils, and let their creativity get to work!

 The Release

          We kept the butterflies in their cages in the classroom until the end of the week.  This gave us 4 days to observe and discuss them.  We decided at this time that it would be best for the butterflies to be released so that they could enjoy flying around and so that they could find some other butterfly friends to play with.  Because some of the children were feeling sad about the release, we took the butterflies to the playground with us with the intention of releasing them and then playing in the playground with them.  After the release the children went to play and the butterflies were kind enough to swoop in and out of the playground equipment a few times.  A number of children watched the butterflies for a long time before playing.

After releasing the butterflies we went back to the classroom and discussed where the butterflies might fly.  I gave the children a paper with a picture of a butterfly on it and the sentence starter “If I were a butterfly I would fly…”  One of our new sight words was “to” and so I instructed the children to think of a place they would fly to.  On their own, they then had to write “to the ________.”  (“The” is another of their sight words that they already knew well.)  They had to use invented spelling to write the place that they would fly to and they had to illustrate.  After everyone was finished each child had the opportunity to read their sentence and share their illustration with the class.