Meeting Our Caterpillars
Our caterpillars arrived almost a week ago and the boys were VERY excited to meet them! Cousin O was over when they were delivered so he also got to observe the tiny, fuzzy, critters.
The caterpillars were SO tiny when they first arrived. Now, with almost a week gone by, they have easily tripled in size!
We ordered our Painted Lady Butterfly Larvae Kit from a company called Butterfly Wings n’ Wishes Ltd. We ordered the Rearing Kit for C$22.50, which includes:
- 3-5 Butterfly Larvae (ours came with 6) in a 16 oz. container with food
- paint brush (for handling the larvae without hurting them)
- artificial diet
- feeding vial
- instructions and information pages
Deliver was an additional C$22.00 more. The kits do not come with a flight cage, which you will need to transfer the chrysalis’ to so the butterflies can flutter around without getting hurt. You can make one out of mesh netting, or you can do what we did and just order one from the website for C$18.oo.
Caterpillar Poetry
After observing our caterpillars for the first couple of days, I decided to do a project with M. First, we brainstormed words that described what our caterpillars look like and what they do.
Then I helped M construct a poem, using the descriptions he came up with. I used the following format:
Noun/ Topic
1 Word to Describe Appearance
1 Word to Describe Appearance
Simple Phrase to Describe a Specific Feature
Action Phrase (what does it do?)
Action Phrase (what does it do?)
1 Word to Describe How it Moves
1 Word to Describe How it Moves
Noun/ Topic (same as first line)
This is how it turned out:
Caterpillars
Caterpillar
Fuzzy
Furry
Teeny, tiny feet
Munching on leaves
Making sticky silk
Squirmy
Crawling
Caterpillar
As you can see, I just went through M’s list and plunked them into the poem format, crossing them off as I went. The result is a simple, yet informative poem about caterpillars.
I wanted a creative way to display M’s poem, while also slipping in some fine-motor practice (such as cutting and glueing) as well.
I printed off a copy of some caterpillar pictures I found on Google, and had M cut them out with his scissors and then glue them onto some sturdy, green scrapbook paper using a glue stick.
M was so proud of his collage!
I typed his poem onto the computer (older kids can do this step on their own, or if you have A LOT of time, you can attempt this with your preschooler as well) and then printed it out onto transparency paper. Then I poked a hole through M’s collage and the transparency paper, and fastened his poem over top of his caterpillar pictures using a fancy brad clip.
M loved how this project turned out. He especially enjoyed creating the collage, which is something we will definitely be doing more of to strengthen all those tiny muscles, and to improve the overall dexterity of his hands.
If you’re hungry for more caterpillar ideas, click here!
Thanks for stopping by!
Share!
Follow!
Love the verbs!