Butterflies

Spring goeth all in white
Crowned with milk-white may:
In fleecy flocks of light
O'er heaven the white clouds stray.

White butterflies in the air;
White daisies prank the ground;
The cherry and the hoary pear
Scatter their snow around.

~Robert Bridges

This week we studied butterflies.  

We read many books from the library.  We read about life cycles.  

We read about which plants attract caterpillars and which attract butterflies.

As always I think I am learning more than the kids!

On painting day we made coffee filter butterflies.

First, we used watercolors to paint our coffee filters.

Once they dried we added pipe cleaners to make a body.

Very cute!

The boys colored pictures of what they had learned about life cycles, anatomy, and symmetry.

To surprise the kiddos I ordered painted lady larve from insect lore.  

It takes a couple of weeks but, soon we will be the proud owners of painted lady butterflies.

Here's what they look like so far.

We watch them every day for changes.  

as of now they have molted two times and are getting pretty big.

We spent time talking about the migration of the Monarch.  This is one of the most unusual migrations on Earth.  Scientists still do not understand many aspects of this flight.  I usually do not allow T.V.  In this case I wanted them to see how it looked when millions of Monarchs arrive in the mountains of Mexico at the same time.  So, I allowed a show it was very good.  Nova is one of my favorite programs. 

On craft day we made butterfly nets!  

All the kids loved them.

We got the directions from a cute crafty website called skip to my lou.  

Of course we went on a lot of hunts to try and find them.  

It is still a little early for the butterflies.  They found box elder bugs though.

We also tried to identify plants in the wild they would consume.  

We found milkweed!

Still no eggs or caterpillars:(

We decided to make our own butterfly garden.

We already had some of the plants in place that attract butterflies.  

This time we did some research and added more from Axdahls.

While wearing a butterfly headband no less.

We planted patunias, zinnia, and cosmos.
We already had purple coneflower, blackeyed susan, aster, and many more.

Hopefully the butterflies will grace us all summer.


Hopefully, butterflies will grace all of your gardens as well.



Until next week
~blessings