Butterfly / Caterpillar Lifecycle

[babyandchild]

We are currently watching first hand the transformation from Caterpillar to Butterfly!
It's wonderful....I bought a butterfly garden kit from Amazon and sent off for 5 live caterpillars. They arrived last thursday and they are fascinating to watch. They eat this 'gunk' in the bottom of the pot they come in and will turn themselves into Chrysallis within the next 21 days!
At this point you put them in the butterfly expanding net tube thing and they turn into butterflies.....it's fab!
Once they are butterflies you let them go in the garden. I thought this would be a wonderful learning experience for the children (and me).
I'm sure that some of you great minders out there have done this already, my children are really fascinated by the whole process!

Michelle x

[angeldelight]

Sounds great fun Michelle

But silly me would not do it - im scared of Butterflies

You have made me shiver just thinking of this ha


Angel xx

[avril]

Yes I'm doing this and I'm more excited than the children :blush: My caterpillars are now chrysalis's and I cannot wait for them to be butterflies but as the saying goes a watched kettle never boils!!:laughing:

Sparklebox has pictures of the life cycle you can print off which I have done laminated and put them on the wall so the children can see what will happen, Annie gave me this idea, I couldn't claim this one as mine :blush: :D

[tulip0803]

We did this at work last year and the children really enjoyed it:) . We then collected cabbage white catapillers off the broccolli (we tried and failed to grow it:( ) and tried with those but it was the end of the summer and after they turned into chrysalises they hibernated over the winter and emerged in April much to everyone's surprise (I kept telling them not to throw them away)

We also found a tropical butterfly house nearby and went there and saw some really big butterflies and moths:)

[Tatia]

That sounds great! I'm off to have a look!

[sarah707]

What a great activity! Let us know when they change! :D

[nell57]

That sounds really interesing keep us up to date on them. Are they expensive to buy?

Helen

[angeldelight]

Oh why do you all like them ??

Yuk

Angel xx

[babyandchild]

No they weren't that expensive, the butterfly garden was £14.99 and I had to send £2 postage and packaging for the caterpillars...

I'll let you know how they get on, the caterpillars have grown even more since this morning.

I have down loaded the caterpillar lifecycle from sparklebox and we have been working on them.
I'm also using the Very Hungry Caterpillar storysack that my mother in law made for me...it's great, she made all the different food, butterfly, caterpillar, green leaf etc from felt.

Mich x

[crazybones]

Mine are still trying to get the caterpillars out of the container at the moment. Result though - 2 yr old mindee counted to 5 properly for the first time when counting how many we had :thumbsup:

We got 3 butterflies from the 5 caterpillars last year. Two of them flew off but the 3rd one's wings had not formed properly so the older ones knew he wasnt going to make it.:( They gave them names, Fred, Bill and "Dead" :panic:

[Raggydolls]

oh wow, our school nursery and reception class is called caterpillars and butterflies so what a perfect talking point for them. i must remember at the start of next term to buy them one (my mindee goes there and the teachers will love it)

thanks for this

leanne
xx

[babyandchild]

They are now all chrysilis' and I can't wait to see what happens next....
Fascinating!

[avril]

x4 of our survives and we let the butterflies go yesterday, my little boy is 4yrs old cried he wanted to keep them forever. Bless him :D

[crazybones]

Suprisingly we have 5 chrysalis' 4 hanging and 1 on the floor. First time all of the caterpillars have made it this far. :D

[Delly]

Suprisingly we have 5 chrysalis' 4 hanging and 1 on the floor. First time all of the caterpillars have made it this far. :D

we have the same!! my dd is so excited about them!!..

I just think they look gross!!..

Can't wait for the butterflies tho.. :D :D such a great activity

[miss mopple]

I do this with the kids every year and they love it :thumbsup:

Ofsted happened to come while we were doing it 3 years ago (they are due again anytime now :eek: ) and the inspector was uber impressed :D

Not sure we'll get to it this year as I think I've left it a bit late as I' off on holibobs for a fortnight soon :clapping: