Butterfly Study Unit

For Easter my kids received a live Butterfly Garden Kit and we began our investigation of the metamorphous, complete change,  that takes place when a caterpillar turns into a Butterfly. This process can take anywhere from 20 to 30 days. This unit of study includes our observation of the process, using our live Butterfly Kit. I have also included the reading materials, activities and logs I used to supplement and teach along the way. 

This is a fantastic way to show kids the step by step life cycle of a butterfly first hand! Our caterpillar house is sitting on our kitchen counter and has been cause for awesome questions and conversation since we started.  My kids are learning how to make observations, record questions, track the caterpillars growth, and they are seeing the stages of the butterflies life cycle as they occur! So AWESOME!!

I am going to be adding to this entry as we complete our unit. All of the resources that I have created and found online will be provided below, as well as, the link to Insect Lore where you can order your live caterpillars by mail and get started!


Getting Started:
In order to get started you will need to purchase your live Butterfly Garden.  You can purchase the live Butterfly Garden at your local Walgreens for 14.99 or on http://www.insectlore.com/. If you purchase your kit from Walgreens you will receive a coupon to redeem on the insect lore website so that you can order your live caterpillars and get started. It cost us $5 to order our caterpillars and they were to the house in several days.
 
Week One:
The fist thing I did was create an observation log. The log has room for seven observations. The life cycle of a butterfly is complete within 3-4 weeks, so I created a log where your child is recording the changes that are occurring every 3-4 days. There are significant changes in size as well as behavior that occur in several days time and gives your child plenty to write about and draw on their log page.
Observation Log:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-4_yroOwt-aX0tOVmFGRkkteVE/edit

I also printed off a life cycle investigation packet that I found on another blog (tekyteach.blogspot.com) called from caterpillars to Butterflies: my butterfly life cycle investigation.  This packet includes many writing activities to engage your kids while they are observing their caterpillars. It includes pages that encourage study on insects, the four stages of the life cycle, as well as, diagrams to label and places to record predictions. We are completing the packet a bit out of order.  As my kids are asking questions or as we notice something in the insect house that interests us, I look through the packet for the appropriate page.
Butterfly Packet:
http://tekyteach.blogspot.com/2011/03/butterfly-investigation-book-download.html

Reading Material: 
The Very Hungry Caterpillar By: Eric Carle



Craft:
The craft for week one has the kids creating a life cycle diagram inside of a file folder. I divided the file folder into 4 sections and we created a picture representation of each life cycle stage to display inside. 

The first stage of a butterflies life is an egg.  I cut out green construction leaves and the kids dropped dots of glue onto the leaf to act as eggs. Then they sprinkled the glue eggs with glitter! For the caterpillar stage we used our fingers to make finger print caterpillars. For the third stage I drew some chrysalis' on construction paper and then the kids tore brown paper from grocery store bags to glue onto the cut out. And for the final and fourth stage we made hand print butterflies!  This was really easy and fun for the kids. The best part is that they remember the four stages of the butterflies life cycle.

The final product:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar: Sequencing Activity
There are so many great activities for this book! I gave each of the kids their own set of cards and had them line them up on the floor as we read the book. Then I challenged them to put the cards in order without reading the book.

Link for sequencing activity:
http://storytime-storytime.blogspot.com/2009/01/very-hungry-caterpillar-activities.html

Week one teaching points:

1. A Butterfly is an Insect: What makes something an insect?
2. There are four stages in the life cycle of a Butterfly

Week one Objectives:

1. Your child will name the parts of an insect
2. The child will accurately label a picture of a caterpillar
3. The child will describe the function of the parts of the caterpillar
4. The child will label and describe the four stages of a butterflies life cycle

Teaching Tip: Anything this week that you can do to increase their interest and knowledge about caterpillars is great! Try watching you tube videos about caterpillars or singing caterpillar/butterfly songs! There are many great books about butterflies and other insects that you can find at your local library too.  Have books with this topic available for your kids to read in your house and get excited with them about the investigation. Keep a magnifying glass out at all times and encourage them to take a closer look at your caterpillars throughout the day. Take a nature walk and look for some wild caterpillars and butterflies! You have many opportunities to record their questions and learn together as you walk through this investigation, so get excited with them and have fun!

Week Two:
We started on Monday by completing another observation log. Over the weekend our caterpillars attached themselves to the top of our container and made their chrysalis'. How the Caterpillar completes its Metamorphose inside the chrysalis will be the main topic of this week.

When we finished our observation log and labeled all of the objects in our drawing, we got out our caterpillar packet and completed a couple of pages.  We learned two new chrysalis terms and completed a page that reviews the parts of an insect. It is so great to learn the terms and then get out the magnifying glass and observe the real thing!  We also went back and wrote down the number of days that it took for the caterpillar to make its chrysalis.

Teaching Tip: When something you are working on is going to take a long time to come to completion, it is a great idea to mark your observation points on the calendar.  We got out the calendar that we use for "morning calendar time" and marked some important dates that we needed to remember. We put a picture of a caterpillar on the day they arrived in the mail. We also marked the day that they made their chrysalis. We decided that it would also be a good idea to mark down the day that we predicted they would emerge as butterflies. This simple activity had Oliver reviewing days/dates on the calendar, counting days, reaffirming his predictions, and recording data!

Video Clip:
When the caterpillars made their chrysalis we weren't able to observe the whole process. It happened over the course of a couple of days. I found a great video on you tube that has an adorable little guy walking through the stages of the butterflies life and it shows a facsinating video of the transformation in high speed.  The kids really thought it was cool...they almost got as excited as I did!
Caterpillars to Butterflies Video Clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQOFh1exp3A&index=3&list=FLojRzUjzlczn3D0dpDRreuA

Now that the chrysalis formed we needed to transfer them to the observation house! I managed to do it without any falling to the bottom of the cage! We hung it from the ceiling so that they won't be disturbed. Now we wait!

Throughout the next week we spent time reviewing what we already had learned about caterpillars. At this point we had completed 5 logs that included drawings, measurements, and descriptions of the process. After exactly one week our first butterfly emerged from its chrysalis!

After we finished our observation log we completed some pages from our butterfly packet. We talked about the parts of a butterfly and revisited our prediction page to fill in the number of days it took for our first butterfly to appear. We also marked on our calendar the day that we saw our first butterfly emerge.

Oliver measured out our sugar water and helped me place the food inside the cage.  We were able to talk about the early hours of a butterflies life.  It takes the butterfly a couple of hours to prepare for flight by pumping blood into its wings and allowing them to harden.  The butterfly also releases meconium onto the bottom of the cage, which consists of extra coloring and fluid that it did not need for development. The kids get to see all of this and it is really exciting when the butterflies begin to flap their wings for the first time and move around!

Now we will be feeding them for a week or so and observing their behavior! Then we get to have a fun family experience and find a perfect place to release them. We will be completing two more observation logs.  One will be about the butterflies behavior in the cage and the other will be about what they did when we released them!

Week Two Teaching Points:

1. What happens inside the chrysalis 
2. What are the parts of a butterfly

Week Two Objectives:

1. Your child will be able to label the parts of a butterfly
2. Your child will observe and describe the transition from chrysalis to flight