Caterpillar Science!

Our life cycles unit is always one of my FAVORITE to teach. Somehow, I missed out on ordering caterpillars last year, so although some of my students have participated in this unit before, it was like new to them.

We received our caterpillars last week, and after they spent a weekend at my house getting comfy, I brought them to school to begin observing them. 

Five days and a couple drops/shakes/students trying to remove the cover later, there is a possibility that come Monday, we may have some chrysalises! 

Here are some of the fun things we did!

We read and watched The Very Hungry Caterpillar to kick off our unit. I had gotten this felt set a few years ago secondhand for free. It is missing a few parts, but it sure beats paying $50 for it!! One of my very talented paras is going to sew us a new apple and leaf. My students took turns adding the correct piece to our felt board to sequence the whole story. We reviewed it after each new piece was added, and I had one of my most reluctant readers labeling the story events by the end! 

We briefly went over the life cycle of a caterpillar, and as the days go by, we review which phase our caterpillars are in. 

We used our imaginations to picture our caterpillars eating some of the things in the book. It was hard to come to the conclusion that "real" caterpillars only eat leaves-how boring!

Every day, we come together as a group and pass the caterpillars around to make notes in our daily observation journals. This is something I created myself a few years ago, and the repetitive, predictable nature of it works really well for my students. It involves calendar work, counting, reading, measuring, colors, and visual motor skills for each page. The best part is the kids actually enjoy it because it is based around creepy crawly living things!! 

We are so excited for our caterpillars to turn into butterflies. Stay tuned!