This week’s activity

From tiny caterpillar to beautiful butterfly

We like to help the children appreciate the wonders of the natural world. The transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly is something we often talk about but, unless you see it in real life, it can seem a distant and strange concept. We decided that we would buy a ‘Butterfly Garden – Caterpillars to Butterflies Growing Kit’ from Insect Lore. The kit comes with everything you need, apart from the caterpillars, which you order separately once the kit has arrived. The small pot has special food which is ideal for the young caterpillars. As in the familiar story ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, once the caterpillars have grown to the right size, they spun themselves a cocoon (or chrysalis), which they suspended from the lid of the pot. We have a ‘word of the week’, which we relate to something that will have meaning to the children, in this case it was ‘chrysalis’. This phase took around a week. The children checked on them regularly to see if any changes had happened. Finally, one sharp-eyed child noticed that a butterfly had emerged and there was an empty cocoon. Over the next couple of days, the butterflies began to come out of their chrysalises. We added more food to help them gain their strength as they began to unfold their wings. The children noted that the butterflies shook/ vibrated their wings to help them get ready for the next stage. By Monday of this week, the butterflies were fully developed and ready to be released into the world. The children excitedly watched as the butterflies took to the air. Wonderful! This activity has led to lots of other activities, such as reading the ‘Very Hungry Caterpillar’ story using props and making their very own butterflies using sticks and delicate tissue paper for wings.