Caterpillars and Chrysalides

Our caterpillars kept eating and growing, and over the weekend they all formed a chrysalis. Now we are just waiting for the butterflies! Here are a few of the learning activities we've been doing alongside observing our live friends.

Caterpillar Stamping Art

Butterfly Writing Journals

I plan to do a more detailed post about these journals once we are finished, but we have been "writing" in these journals every day about the things we are learning. 

Small World/Dramatic Play

I made these little caterpillars by twisting to pieces of pipe cleaner together. The kids created all sorts of dramatic play games using these and some small play butterflies. Here they are trying to get their caterpillars to hang upside down in a "J" shape, like ours did when they were getting ready to form a chrysalis. 

It was exciting to watch two of our caterpillars get into the hanging "J" position while we were in class.  

Lots of Butterfly Books

We have been reading lots of books about caterpillars and butterflies. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a classic, but I also love Ten Little Caterpillars by Bill Martin Jr. It is great for talking about different kinds of caterpillars, and the various things that a caterpillar might do or encounter in its brief life. 

We practiced counting and subtraction skills while we read, as we took away caterpillars for each page. 

Chrysalide Observation

After about a week, we were able to observe the caterpillars in chrysalis form. 

 Once the chrysalides were hard enough, we carefully moved them to the butterfly habitat, in preparation for the butterflies. This gave us the opportunity to look at them a little more closely. 

Next week we should be able to see how they've changed into butterflies!