Butterfly Life Cycles

I have been looking forward to the grade three life cycle unit all year. I got the chance to raise butterflies with my students! I am a little bit of a nature nut and love anything that has to do with being outside or learning about the world around us. Most of the students hadn't really been up close and personal with any insects (other than mosquitoes and flies) which made that much more exciting.

 It was a lot of fun to watch as they grew from caterpillar, to chrysalis, and finally to butterflies. The whole class was excited to see the changes taking place. I had never done this before and couldn't believe how much the caterpillars grew in the first week! Best of all, it was so easy to take care of them which means my students got an awesome learning experience and I didn't have to do a lot of extra work each day.

When the caterpillars arrived the students all got a butterfly journal so they could keep track of the caterpillars progress through pictures and journal entries.

Here are some examples of entries the students completed. It was a lot of fun to have the kids come into class each day and head straight for the caterpillars or butterflies to check for any changes.

 As we watched them grow we read books and did some research to make sure we understood what was happening and to help us predict what might happen next.

I love, love, love using hands on learning whenever I can and our butterfly release party was definitely hands on. The sun was shining today so we headed outside to set our butterflies free. Of course we couldn't let them go without some pictures first.

Doing this was so simple and I am so grateful to have experienced teachers around who can give me the heads up with stuff like this. I had all the kids stick their hands in a bucket of sugar water and then put their hand into the butterfly habitat.

 If they hold still it doesn't take long for one of the butterflies to come looking for a sip of the sweetness. The kids had a blast and we got some awesome pictures!

Thankfully I had some help from another teacher who knows how to handle a camera. For most of the kids this is one of the closest experiences they have had with nature and it made for a great and memorable way to say farewell to our little buddies!