We began this Unit about 6 weeks ago and it definitely was a favorite for me and my students. I bought a butterfly net at Walmart last summer and couldn’t wait to use it this year! When you purchase the net, it comes with a certificate for free caterpillars but you would need to pay the shipping. I was fortunate this year to get caterpillars from our local Butterfly Garden so they could just eat leaves instead of the gel that comes in the cups from the mail order. One of the other first grade teachers did get the mail order so we could compare. I had only a few die but all 5 of hers survived and turned into butterflies.
Caterpillars from the kit
Our Very Hungry Caterpillars from the Butterfly Garden
Our caterpillar ready to shed it's skin
It's now a Chrysalis!
Our Butterflies!
The students kept track of our caterpillars in their Weekly Journal
I also was able to get a butterfly education kit with real butterfly wings and samples of a real Chrysalis. The students used the butterfly wing cards I made in a compare and contrast activity.
We made butterfly glyphs to go with their Butterfly Life Cycle writing.
Blogger is not being nice to me today. Just tilt your head...call it your neck stretch of the day
The students played They Very Hungry Caterpillar game with vocabulary cards.
This Butterfly Math and Literacy Unit is now available on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Click the link below.
Great ideas...thanks for the photos. We'll be starting this in March. How long does it take the butterflies to hatch with the kit? I'm trying to figure out when to order them. Thanks!
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ReplyDeleteThe caterpillars take about 2 weeks to turn into a Chrysalis. Then it is about a week until they come out as butterflies. Our butterflies are now mating and laying eggs! Not sure what we will do next:)
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