Stage 1 - Curiosity
"But how does the caterpillar turn into a beautiful butterfly?"
As the children read the classic story “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, they were intrigued with questions and curiosity of the metamorphosis of a butterfly.
Stage 2 - Sharing Ideas
"The caterpillar grows inside a cocoon to a butterfly"
We looked back through the story to understand how these changes occur. We shared ideas of how we thought it can happen. An explanation of how butterflies go through a growing process was provided after we saw the Life Cycle of a Butterfly via YouTube and saw pictures to discover that at each stage of growth its appearance was different.
Stage 3 - Research and investigation
We flipped over leaves looking for eggs and caterpillars...
Throughout this project, the children explored and learned about the life cycle of a butterfly as they not only looked at its developing stages in the outdoors but they were able to touch and come up close. This included flipping leaves looking for eggs and caterpillars, observing caterpillars wiggling and slithering on leaves and branches while looking out for cocoons.
As we investigated further, there were more sparks of questions during brainstorming that lead us to describing the features found on the caterpillar, cocoon and butterfly. We used images from the Butterfly Life Cycle to help stimulate the conversation of comparing and contrasting. As an activity, we designed a huge drawing of each stage and the children made labels by writing their favourite parts.
The children were encouraged to use the terms:
- eggs
- caterpillar
- cocoon
- butterfly
Stage 4 - Conclusions
The children resourced their own learning about the different stages of the lifecycle of a butterfly.
The children used information and communication technologies to access information. It has promoted the children’s interest in their investigative skills and resourcing their own learning.
Exploring each stage, the children had the opportunity to learn about the attributes, behaviours and anatomy of a caterpillar and butterfly through observation, comparing and contrasting.
