Every day the children come in we spend some time observing and discovering what is new about our caterpillars. We noticed that they are much bigger! The larva have doubled in size over the course of 3-4 days and the children have noticed that their growth is related to the amount of food they have eaten in their cups.
Here they are bigger then when they arrived. During these days the caterpillars were really moving around their cups. The children observed this and said, "They are moving!" and "They are eating!"
This morning I came in and discovered that the caterpillars had all attached to the paper towel piece at the top. They are about to make their chrysalis. Our 4 year old and JK class observed that they now look like the letter "J".
We even have 2 caterpillars in their chrysalis (see the middle cup). Now the caterpillars have stopped moving and are very still.
The children have been representing what they have discovered about these amazing creatures through a variety of art forms.
We did the classic egg carton caterpillars. I've done this in the past, but the children seemed much more interested in making them this time. I'm wondering if observing caterpillars and then creating them based off of this real life experience helped them. I loved how one child thought to put the legs under the egg carton so it could stand and walk. This idea inspired many others!
One child thought to cut up the egg carton to make the caterpillar cups just like the real ones in our classroom. The red pipe cleaner is the larva or caterpillar. What a unique idea she had and it was her way of expressing the learning that was occurring.
Our 3 year olds expressed their learning by turning the egg carton the other way and gluing things inside. This is what was developmentally appropriate for them - the items stuck better and 3 year olds love to fill stuff up!
One JK child drew a butterfly on the white boards that we keep at our writing centre.
Today we printed and stamped caterpillars with spools! I found a bunch of them in a cupboard and thought they made a nice paint brush.
Some caterpillars had eyes and legs.
