Butterfly Learning

Our caterpillar hatched last week.  When it happened, we decided to use the teachable moment and do a little learning.  We talked about the fact that we often use our eyes to add to our schema.  Then we learned the word "observe" and made a list of all the things we observed with our eyes while watching the caterpillar go through the butterfly's life cycle.  

In small groups, we acted out the entire process based on our observations.  Here are our sweet little actors showing us what they know.  That caterpillar crawled around the habitat:

Sometimes he lay on the leaf:  

Finally, he attached to the top of our habitat.

Here is another picture of the butterfly attaching to the habitat.  

 Here is the caterpillar eating all that yummy milkweed that we put in the habitat!

And here's the butterfly hatching from the chrysalis.  

More actors showing us the process they observed.  

After we acted out our observations, we revisited some of the butterfly books we've read.  Then we made a list of all the things we learned from our books:  

Here's the caterpillar drying its wings.  

Each thinker, then recorded learning on a graphic organizer.  They had to note what they observed and what they learned from reading.  

Here is the butterfly just before we let it go in Southside's garden.