Wednesday 5 July 2017

Butterfly Life Cycles

Even the youngest of children are often fascinated by butterflies and the children here are no exception. This gives the perfect way in which to start to teach them about life cycles, something that will enable them to connect with nature as they develop and start to gain an understanding of basic science. 

We started with 5 caterpillars that the children came and counted on a daily basis as well as commenting on their size and their movement. We talked about the food that the caterpillars were eating and the fact that we must not put them in the direct sun. It is important that the children can relate such activities to the outdoor environment and we were lucky enough to find some caterpillars on one of our trips to the local nature garden at the park. 


Whilst our caterpillars grew and became chrysalises we undertook a range of age-appropriate activities with older ones discussing the life cycle order for the caterpillars from egg through to butterfly with the aid of our toy models and appropriate picture books through to painting butterfly pictures for the younger children. 


Finally our butterflies all hatched safely and, having fed them with flowers and orange juice, it was time to release them to the wild, something that the children particularly enjoyed. 


Other life cycles that we have covered this term include that of the frog with several visits to Saltram House to view the frogspawn and subsequently tadpoles and frogs together with that of fruit, predominantly focussing on strawberries and a trip to the local pick your own.

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