Our Week (or 3) of Butterflies!

Just like our ladybug project, I ordered our butterfly larvae from Insect Lore.  I've been doing this project with my students for more years than I can count and I've slowly been increasing the number of butterflies I order.  For a while, I ordered one small cup of caterpillars (about 5 or 6), then last year, I had two classes, AM and PM, so I ordered two cups and we ended up with about 10 painted lady butterflies.  

This year, I have 13 students, not including my own children, but since I can only have 4 students each class period, every day looks different as far as kiddos go.  I wanted each child to experience the best part of the butterfly project - releasing the butterflies - so I ordered a 'school kit' so we'd have enough of the lovely painted ladies to release a few during each class.  

When my kit arrived and I finally got them placed into their individual cups, this is what I ended up with.

That is a grand total of 47 caterpillars....aaannnnddd, maybe I went a bit overboard with the ordering, but never mind that, on to activities.

I've been working hard to incorporate more Reggio-inspired ideas into my curriculum and because long-term projects are something used quite a bit in that particular school of thought, I figured our butterfly project would be a great time to start introducing documentation and observation to the children.

Here are some samples of my son's observations:

And because this observation and documentation thing is still new to me, these are the only three I actually managed to get done, however; you can see the progression of thought and the addition of detail in just this short amount of time.  The first picture doesn't look like much to the casual observer, but I know that the 'S' in the bottom left is his caterpillar; the second picture shows the cup with the concentric circles and the caterpillar to the left; by the third picture, he asked me to label everything for him.  Next time, I'll remember to finish these observations with him - who knows where he would have gone next!

We kept a close eye on our caterpillars over the next week and they eventually got to be quite large.

The next step in the process is the 'J' hang - and now I'm really wishing I'd done more observational drawings with the kiddos - how cool is this?

Finally, all of the caterpillars became chrysalids (which I guess sounds nicer than chrysalises) and I had to painstakingly pin each cup lid to the side of our butterfly garden.  There were a few that had to be placed on the bottom, but I managed to fit all of them in there safe and sound where we watched and waited for another whole week.

While we were waiting, we made some fun crafts.  And of course, no butterfly unit would be complete without:

We made pom-pom caterpillars.

And had a bonus math lesson when we spontaneously decided to count our pom-poms.

We also used wool roving wrapped around a pipe cleaner to create rainbow chrysalids.

And finally, coffee filter butterflies, because children love spray bottles and they always turn out lovely!

Gorgeous!

And finally, after two weeks of waiting, we were visited (on Saturday, of course!) by our very first butterfly.

And soon, we had a butterfly garden literally overflowing with painted ladies.

We have spent this week saying goodbye to our new little friends, some of whom were kind enough to give us an extended goodbye.

Even the littlest Seedling got in on the action!

Next year - praying mantises??  I think so.

10 Preschool Sensory Bin Ideas

 We always have plenty of sensory experiences here at Seedlings, but we love to go beyond the typical sand, water, potting soil, rice, birdseed, beans, etc.  Here are some examples of seasonal and anytime sensory bins.

Rainbow Bubbles

Spring/Easter Theme: shredded paper, plastic eggs, spring foam shapes, spoons, baskets.

 Cloud dough: 8c. flour, 1c. oil - I used baby oil

Bug Theme: shredded paper, wood blocks, plastic bugs and trees.

Pond Theme: Colored water, river rocks, frog life cycle models, magnifying glasses.

Gardening Theme: sand (or potting soil), garden tools, plastic planters, faux flowers.

Gardening/Flowers/Spring Theme: Lavender scented water, water beads, faux flowers, cups for scooping and pouring.

Christmas: Dyed rice, ornaments, gift boxes.

Arctic/Winter Theme: Tray covered with foil, vanilla-scented glitter play dough, Arctic TOOB

Arctic/Winter Theme: Salt in tray covered with foil, small arctic buttons (Hobby Lobby/Michael's) and blue and white pom-poms (not pictured).

Life Cycle of a Ladybug

Each year, we witness amazing life cycles in our classroom.  In years past, butterflies have been our go-to bug, however, this year, I decided to give ladybugs a try.  Our ladybug unit usually falls in the summer, and the company that supplies the insect larvae won't ship the ladybugs when the weather is too hot.  I was finally on the ball this year and remembered to order before the heat kicked in here in sunny Arizona.  I still plan to do our annual butterfly project, but here's a look at our sweet ladybugs.

 In your ladybug kit, you will get this cute Ladybug Land along with a tube filled with larvae and enough food to last until they enter the pupal phase of their lives.  The little strips of paper were in the tube so the larvae have a place to crawl while being shipped.

 The top of the Ladybug Land is a magnifier, just in case you don't have any around. 

 Invitation to create bugs.  I got the stencils/rubbing plates from Insect Lore as well.  They also look pretty cool on the light table.

 Teeny ladybug larvae - not so cute, but now you know not to rid your garden of these lil fellas.

 See those yellow spots?  Ladybug pupa.

 An attempt at a close-up.

 All resting and waiting to hatch.

 Ta-da!  Ladybugs have arrived.

 They like to munch on raisins while waiting to be released.

 Here's the Ladybug Land with the top removed, time to release our new friends.

I put them in my tomato plant, hoping they'd stay and I actually did find one about three days later, but I'm not sure if they're still around or not.  My son likes to think they are and I do too!  Now, off to order our caterpillars!