First Graders and Painted Lady Butterflies

 

 We got a plastic cup in the mail with 6 caterpillars in it. The food they would need was in the cup, too. For two weeks they just ate and crawled around in the cup and grew bigger. Then they each spun a chrysalis and hung from the lid of the cup.
 We made a butterfly house from a box and we put a stick in it for the butterflies to perch on when they came out of the chrysalis. We covered the front with plastic. Then we taped the paper from the lid to the top of the box and we waited for them to come out. It took about 11 days. We also put in a cup of sugar water for the butterflies to eat.  
 
 
  When the butterflies had been in our room a week, we let them go in the field beside our school parking lot. At first, they didn't want to leave the box.
 Soon the butterflies left the box and four of them flew up into trees and bushes. Two of them would not fly away so we let them crawl on a stick, and we put the stick into the Scotch broom bushes. They have good camouflage and are hard to see there. We were sad to see them leave but we know they have to be free.

 

Can you see these butterflies?

 
 
  After we let the butterflies go, we made paper butterflies so we would remember the Painted Lady ones we had raised. Maybe next year we can do this again!

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