Raising Butterflies

I ordered a cup of five caterpillars from Insect Lore.  We watched the caterpillars continue to grow for nearly a week and then they started to hang upside down from the lid.  Soon they had changed into their chrysalis.  It was another week or so, until the butterfly crawled out of the chrysalis.  One year a boy commented, "That's real?  I thought it was pretend."  That is one reason why I do this activity with the students.  Some "big" words they learned:  caterpillar, metamorphosis, larvae, and chrysalis.  The kind of butterflies we raised are called, Painted Lady Butterflies.  It was really fun!  This year the butterflies did not want to be held and took off right away much to the dismay of the kindergartners.

Painted Butterflies are a bit smaller than
the Monarch Butterfly.