Butterflies!

I never post on here about my classroom for many reasons but in this case, I just have to. We raised painted lady butterflies in our room and we all loved watching them move from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. Today, we set them free and the students had so much fun holding them and them watching them fly free. None of these pictures have any identifying information about my students which is why I am able to post them.

The caterpillars:


The brown material at the bottom of the container is caterpillar food.


All of the caterpillars had turned into a chrysalis except for one. We kept trying to catch him as he became a chrysalis but we never got to see it. Thank goodness for Y0uTube.


The first butterfly emerged. They hang upside down until their wings are ready.


Look at that crazy long tongue (proboscis). It's hollow like a straw.






We soaked the colored pom-poms in sugar water for them to drink.


Beautiful:




The butterflies were very friendly. They hung out on the boys' hands and shirts for a while before leaving.




This one was on my finger. Isn't he cute?




We nicknamed one of my students, the butterfly whisperer. His butterfly stayed on his hand for about 10 minutes. It flew away and came back several times to sit on his hand or land on his shirt.