Fly Away Butterfly

Our Butterfly Release

We were all so excited when four of our caterpillars made it to the final stage of their life cycle, but that also meant it was time to say good-bye.  It would be hard, especially now that they all had names!

Flower, Flyer, Lizzy and Buttercup

Luckily, the weather was perfect, so we gathered our preschool friends outside in the play yard to let our beautiful butterflies go. 

The munchkins noticed immediately how eager the butterflies were to be released.  The minute they were in the sun, they spread their wings wide and floated to the top of the canopy.  It only took a few minutes after unzipping the top before two had found their way up, up, and away!

Good-bye!

The third one stayed around for a bit after finding his way out of the canopy. 

 The munchkins followed him around as he landed on flower after flower, but it wasn't long before he, too, was up and away. 

We tried to catch him, but it was no use!

It took a while for number four to go. 

He needed a little nudge and then...

Good-bye!

Notice the little crossed fingers? 

We wish them all well...

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.

Eric Carle Creations: Part Two

Butterflies

As we continued with our Eric Carle stories, we began to anticipate what would happen to our own very hungry caterpillar...

Of course, we expect it, too, to become a beautiful butterfly.  We created another section of our insect lapbook to prepare for this exciting change.

Our finished lapbooks looked wonderful and we had so much fun putting them together.  They included the life cycle of the butterfly, the predators and special defenses of the butterfly, and a great butterfly diagram so we could label all the parts of its body.

It was wonderful when we all realized that our caterpillar larva (which we began observing last week) had changed into the next stage of metamorphosis...the pupae. 

Too cool!

We got our caterpillar lapbooks back out and documented the change in the journal.

We had some new activities in our basket of rug fun...

Like the many-colored butterflies for creating the longest of patterns!

The munchkins enjoyed the many different readable books the were available at the reading center about bugs and butterflies. 



We had some art fun by creating our own colorful butterflies. 

But what was the catch to this art-turned-science activity?

The butterfly had to have all the parts of a butterfly that we learned about during the week.

Like...

* four wings *

* two antennae *

* six squiggly legs *

* a head *

* a thorax *

* an abdomen *

and....

* a proboscis *

Bunches of beautiful butterflies!

So it was no surprise what our recipe would be for the week, but it was a surprise to see how we would create it!

Even our recipe creations had all the right body parts.

And they tasted just as wonderful!

Until next time,

Giggles...

Mrs. D.

Butterfly Release

Fly Away Home!

Our butterflies finally arrived! The munchkins were intrigued and mesmerized by them for the two days that we waited for all four of them to emerge and dry out.  We were a little sad, but happy at the same time, as we gathered with our preschool class on a warm, bright afternoon to release them.

It took a while (and a little coaxing) to get some of the butterflies to leave the pavilion, but they were so beautiful to watch as they fluttered off.  We were lucky that they left the pavilion one at a time, so we could take the time to follow them around a bit!

Except...

one little guy decided to stick around for a while.

What an amazing opportunity this was!

We gathered around it and realized that it was trying to find something to eat.  How did we know?  It had uncurled its proboscis and seemed to be trying to eat the grass!

So we gathered the oranges that were in the pavilion and some of the munchkins picked some dandelions and we placed them with the butterfly.  It was so neat to watch him jump right over to the food and begin drinking.  The munchkins were so excited to be watching it all first hand!

We became worried when two of the other classes came out for a quick recess.  What would happen if the older kids wanted to play baseball?  He was right in the middle of the field! 

The solution was so simple and absolutely heartwarming...

Take him to Mary!

So we picked him up on (right on the orange) and carried him across the street to our parish Marian prayer garden.  You can see some of the munchkins already invoking Mary's aid!

And here he is in his new home at the foot of Mary.



What else can I say?

Beautiful!

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.