Butterfly Habitat

I gave the children this butterfly habitat for Easter, but it was also a Science activity suggested by Sonlight's Science K program. We read about butterflies in Caterpillars and Butterflies (from Science K) and in other books that we already had. I regret that I didn't take better pictures of the process, but I actually want to do this again this summer, so perhaps then I can photo-document the process better.

When the Painted Lady caterpillars arrived in the mail, they were so skinny and tiny. Over the next few weeks, they grew, and grew, and grew, and I could better understand the story behind The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle! They became so huge and fat, more than doubling their size! Then one by one they started hanging upside down in their little cup, until they were all encased in their cocoons.

As of today, we have 5 Painted Lady chrysalids in the butterfly habitat, which is sitting on our kitchen counter. They have dying lilac flowers surrounding them, and there is a beautifully colored picture on the fridge nearby (Alayna's winning picture from the fair) so that when they emerge from their cocoon, they will look forward to the day when we release them into nature. My hope is that it will be warm enough to let them go!