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Showing posts with label chrysalis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chrysalis. Show all posts

5.29.2011

Butterflies, revisited

Here are the butterfly photos that I promised.  All four have been released into our Kindergarten butterfly garden.  My babies are all grown up!


The first two butterflies.  They were out last Monday morning when I arrived at work.


 Gorgeous!


We released them later that afternoon, after their wings had dried. 


Ready to learn to fly!

These photos are from our first release.  Unfortunately, I did not get any photos from our second release of the other two butterflies on Tuesday.  They came out on Tuesday morning, while we were at school.  We didn't get to see either actually come out, but we noticed within minutes after it happened.  Everyone got to hold the first one that came out, because when they first come out of the chrysalis their wings are wet and they cannot fly.  It was so exciting for the kids (and I'm not going to lie, it was exciting for me too.  Kindergarten is too fun!)  I will definitely be doing this project every Spring from now on!

5.23.2011

Butterflies

Two of our butterflies came out of their chrysalis today.  They were there when I got to my classroom this morning.  It was such an exciting time, for both me and the kids!

I have some beautiful pictures of them, but, again, I am not able to post photos.  Just a little frustrating!  I will try again tomorrow.  I want to show of my new babies.

5.14.2011

The Caterpillars

I decided to catch up on some blogging while Jon watches very important soccer game.  I had written "soccer match" first, because he usually corrects me when I call them a game, but then he told me that this is a game because it is in the US.  I just can't keep up.

But, on to more exciting things.

Meet our new friends, The Caterpillars.


These four caterpillars joined our class on Thursday so we could experience their life cycle.  We ordered them from a butterfly release company in Winter Park, and they came with these huge milkweed plants.  They came two to a plant, with a little net bag around them so they would not get lost.  Since we only have a few weeks left of school, we ordered caterpillars that were very close to the chrysalis stage.  These guys were huge.


One of the caterpillars inside the net.


Beautiful!

This is the first time I have done this, but I was advised by my more experienced colleagues to take them home with me over the weekend in a little butterfly net (provided by our science curriculum) in order to make sure they have enough food and to clean out their poop (these guys can really poop).  So I brought them all home with me, as well as one of the milkweed plants, to make sure they survived the weekend.

However, as soon I brought them home they began the process of becoming a chrysalis.  Three of them were already hanging upside down and starting to curl up when we got home from dinner at Jon's parents house last night.



They were still the same when we woke up this morning (early, to do our third day of 5K training!).  When we got home and I got out of the shower, one of them had already become a chrysalis.  After I dried my hair, another had.  The third was complete when we got home from helping Sarah and Justin move today.


The last one just started tonight, and he is now hanging upside.


I am so bummed that I missed watching the other three become a chrysalis.  It happens within minutes.  Hopefully I won't miss this one, but if my guess is right, it will happen while I am asleep.  What is even more disappointing is that the kids are missing this.  All of the excitement is happening while they are in my living room.  Oh well.  You can't control science!

We took some time on Thursday to brainstorm and vote on names.  The winners were Jake, Michael Jackson, Melody and Justin Bieber.  Not necessarily what I would have picked, but I went with it.  All we could think about on Thursday and Friday was the caterpillars, so at all times I would overheard strange things like "Michael Jackson is crawling!" or "Justin Bieber is eating a leaf!"  Those kids make me laugh.