The Butterfly Project

We are down to our last 3 weeks of preschool here and to close off the school year we decided to explore butterflies.  There are many different types of butterflies in the province of Alberta and I have already seen some Cabbage White and Common Wood Nymphs on my hikes around the city and out in the Rockies.

We ordered some caterpillars from a butterfly farm in Alberta and they came yesterday! Here they are in their little homes until they form their chrysalis.

The brown stuff on the bottom is their food.  The paper towel keeps the food from drying out and is the place where the caterpillar attaches the chrysalis. 

We explored the caterpillars together and the children each held a cup in their hands.  We talked together about what we know about caterpillars and then made some observations when we were holding the cups.

We said: "They have fur", "They have pokies, pokes!", "They have legs", "They are babies", "What are the spiderwebs?"  We discovered that some were already making their chrysalis in the cups.

In a few days we should be observing the caterpillars in their chrysalis.