Butterflies - visiting a butterfly house

Julia

To wrap up our butterfly theme we visited a butterfly house yesterday.

(I tried to identify all of the species, if a photo is not labelled and you know what it is please leave a comment)

White Tree Nymph

Pink Cattleheart

White Tree Nymph

The butterflies were magical, the greenhouse was warm and humid, and the plants colourful and fragrant.

Koi fish

Our tour guide gave an informative (and humourous) tour which included various other species that reside in the garden as well.

Tortoise

Emerging Cabinet

The kids had a great time observing up close all that we have "studied" about butterflies and their life cycle.  They looked at butterfly and insect parts under microscopes, found eggs, caterpillars, cocoons, and butterflies in the plants growing in the gardens and enjoyed seeing the reptiles and birds.

Flamingos

Poison Dart Frog

Poison Dart Frog

"Leo" the 16 year old parrot

Chameleon

Nesting Ringneck Dove

Tortoise

Brown Clipper

If you have a Butterfly House in your area it's a great opportunity for children to see butterflies up close and add a 'visual' to what they have learned from books and worksheets.

~ joey ~

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Linking up to:

 

Betterflies - metamorphosis

July 25th

We have really been enjoying our 'live learning' here watching our caterpillars grow and change!

I should really be posting daily updates as the changes happen so quickly so I'm dating each photo.

July 25th

This caterpillar seems to like to hang out on the lid of the container which gives us a great view of it's underside.  We read that it's supposed to have 16 legs but we haven't found all 16 on any of them, they are so tiny it's hard to tell what is a leg and what is just a bump.

Then we spotted a very exciting change . . .

July 25th

...can you see it? (you may need to click on the photo)  It's made a silk thread around the middle of it's body.  We knew that meant it was getting read to form a chrysalis!

July 25th

And then we found this!

The first chrysalis lying on the bottom of the container.  Apparently it can happen anywhere?!

~ ~ ~

July 26th

I made up this Observing the life cycle of a butterfly printable to record that we found:
0 eggs
6 caterpillars
3 chrysalises and
0 butterflies.

We also measured the shortest caterpillar at 1 cm and the longest at 2.5cm.

We filled in the colour and markings chart to say that the caterpillar and chrysalis are both green, the caterpillar with a yellow stripe and the chrysalis with yellow "spikes".

We noted any changes from yesterday and what we think will happen next as well.

July 26th

You can see the last skin on the leaf that it shed before forming it's chrysalis.  We found the same skin under the other chrysalises as well.

July 26th

The caterpillar on the lid has secured a silk thread so it isn't moving or eating.  I've been checking it regularly so we're hoping that we'll get to actually see it form it's chrysalis.

**Note:  In the time it took me to write this it formed it's chrysalis!  Oh well maybe we'll see the next one?!

Check in tomorrow to see some of the butterfly crafts we've been doing.
~ joey ~

Linking up to:

Butterflies - live caterpillars

 It just goes to prove that  

"if you plan it, they will come!"

 

We recently found butterfly eggs, caterpillars and butterflies on our kale plants.  Initially I wasn't very excited that we weren't going to be able to eat the kale, however, the timing couldn't have been more perfect for our butterfly theme.  Real live learning at our fingertips!

 The tiny yellow dots are the eggs.

 

We managed to carefully capture one of the butterflies for a closer look.  We put it into a clear plastic container and checked for markings that would confirm our predictions that this was a Cabbage White Butterfly.

My daughter eagerly read the field guide and found that the colouring and the 2 spots on each forewing confirmed that this is definitely a female cabbage white butterfly.

We freed the butterfly and collected some of the tiny caterpillars that we found on some leaves.

 Printable record keeping sheet:
Observing the life cycle of a butterfly

The above photo was taken on July 18th.
(can you spot the little guy?)

And the below photos were taken July 22nd.

They are growing very quickly!

We think that the larger ones must have molted a few times already as they are getting very plump!

(possibly the green stuff on the left is shed skin?)

 

And one thing is for sure, they poop a lot!

We've been adding fresh leaves every other day and I've been cleaning out the container regularly so that it doesn't smell.

I'll post again in a couple of days so you can see how much they have grown.  I wonder how long it will be until they build a chrysalis?

Here are some links for printables of:

the butterfly life cycle
and
the parts of a butterfly

Have you kept caterpillars and would like to share your links?  Please email me at madebyjoey at gmail dot com.
Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

~ joey ~

~ Linking up to:

 Happy Whimsical Hearts 
and
Learning Laboratory

Butterflies - link up

from: Chocolate Eyes

Becca discovered these caterpillars on her flowers in her backyard and turned it into a learning experience for her children.

Can you identify what they turned into?

Read about their experience and see the fun photos of her kids with the butterflies! 

Home learning at it's best!

Thank you for sharing your links Becca!

~ joey ~

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If you would like to have your related links included in one of my themes, click here.

Butterflies - planning ideas

Important dates and celebrations:

Autumn and Spring - Monarch butterfly migrates

Possible times to use this topic:  Spring, Summer, Autumn

Extensions of this theme:  Life cycles (science), eggs (science), caterpillars (science), colour (art), patterns (art, early math), change (social development)

Decorations:  silk butterflies/flowers/greenery, window clings, arts and crafts made during theme

Common items to use:  dishes in the shape of or with butterflies on them (plastic or china), themed handle spreaders, butterfly printed napkins, fold a cloth napkin into a butterfly ,butterfly bedding and accessories

Foods:  fruits and juices, use a straw to drink like a butterfly, butterfly shaped cookie cutter for sandwiches, veggies or cookie 

Clothing:  silk butterfly wings, clothing with butterflies or caterpillars on them, tattoos

Music: 
- the butterfly jig - you tube
- the butterfly colors song - you tube
- butterfly fly away - miley and billy ray cyrus
- dog and butterfly - heart
- scores from Madame Butterfly opera 

Movies:
Documentaries:
Eyewitness DVD's - Butterfly and Moth
http://www.amazon.com/Eyewitness-Butterfly-Artist-Not-Provided/dp/B000VZGGRU
Entertainment:  Eric Carle The very hungry caterpillar and other stories

Outings:  visit a Butterfly House, visit a garden or park to look for eggs/caterpillars/butterflies

Supplies to keep available:  butterfly or caterpillar pencils, erasers, notepads, rubber stamps and ink pads, stickers, temporary tattoos, bookmarks, circles of paper for making caterpillars, glue, scissors, tape