I’ve read about the metamorphosis of caterpillars to butterflies, but have never seen it happen in person. How great God is to have made his creatures transform in such a way!
We ordered seven caterpillars (as part of the co-op group) from insectlore.com.
They came in a cup with holes at the top and a bunch of food at the bottom. The caterpillars start out very tiny and as they grow, they molt their skin.
Eventually, they become large enough that they’re ready to go into their chrysalis. They hang upside down and form a “j” shape.
We then took them out of the cup and pinned them to the underside of their habitat net.
They emerged about 10 days later, spreading open their wings and drying them out for a while. We fed them sugar water while we enjoyed observing them for a few days.
Then we then released them. The kids wanted to hold them, but the little guys were too eager to fly away.
The world’s your classroom! Go explore it.
See our other Science Series units:
Making Rainbows
Caterpillars to Butterflies
Dinosaurs
Looking Inside The Earth with Playdoh
Nature Walks
Animal Classification
Tsunamis
That is so awesome! How much did it cost? I want to do this with Tristan.
The co-op made a group order so it probably turned out a bit cheaper that way, but I paid only $17 for the 7 caterpillars and butterfly habitat. I’m not sure what it would cost individually though, but definitely worth it. 🙂
I never tired of this unit of study when I taught second grade. So much fun!
What an amazing idea! The children can see God’s creation transform…something exciting for new believers too!