Live Butterfly Gardens — by Guest Mom Marie
When I was teaching Kindergarten a few years back, we did a Spring unit on butterflies. We read stories about them, made butterfly crafts, and even had a real live Butterfly Garden. I purchased a butterfly kit from the company Insect Lore. They sell and ship out live caterpillars with food and instructions for care. The kit comes complete with an enclosed habitat and live caterpillars. The caterpillars turn into Painted Lady Butterflies. After about 3 weeks, the butterflies emerge and spread their wings. We watched them flutter around for a few days after they hatched out of their crysalliss', then we watched them fly away.
Now that I have kids of my own, old enough to enjoy this amazing butterfly transformation, I am putting in my order this week for a complete Butterfly Garden. I can't wait to get our tiny caterpillars and watch as real butterflies emerge. It is quite a sight to see.
I have also found these Butterfly Gardens available at Target and Amazon. You will need to look to see if the "live caterpillars" are included or if you need to purchase them separately. Some kits come with coupons for the caterpillars to redeem later. Enjoy!
Now that I have kids of my own, old enough to enjoy this amazing butterfly transformation, I am putting in my order this week for a complete Butterfly Garden. I can't wait to get our tiny caterpillars and watch as real butterflies emerge. It is quite a sight to see.
I have also found these Butterfly Gardens available at Target and Amazon. You will need to look to see if the "live caterpillars" are included or if you need to purchase them separately. Some kits come with coupons for the caterpillars to redeem later. Enjoy!
Labels: kids, make something
posted by Gabrielle of Design Mom at Monday, April 21, 2008
10 Comments:
What a fun activity! My daughter would love this. :)
I have sooo enjoyed visiting your sites. As a freelancing mom, it is nice to connect with other creative moms in the field. Thank you!
My son recieved a butterfly garden as a gift a couple of years ago - I wasn't that excited as I dont have much luck with small living "critters" - but I was SO excited and AMAZED when they began to emerge from the cocoons! It not only worked well, it was a wonderful experience to behold!
What a beautiful idea!
Wow.. what a cool idea. I've never heard of this before!
I'm doing this with my class NOW. Let me just warn you (if you've not already experienced this) Sometimes WAY before they are ready to bust out of the crystallis-sometimes they shake and flip around violently. This scared the life out of me while i was setting up their food for the end of the week- so just a warning.
What a clever idea, I could see why kids would love this so much, and being able to talk about the whole caterpillar to butterfly process with them would be fun. My daughter loves The Very Hungary Caterpillar book, I bet it would be fun to read the book and then talk about all of the changes they will get to see caterpillar go through. Very cool!
THis is such a great idea. I can't wait to order mine!
This butterfly process is AMAZING. I hope some of you are able to get a habitat of your own. I can't wait to get our shipment of caterpillars. Even those are fun to watch. Then magically, their forming a chrysalis, soon to emerge.
And thanks, Melissa, for the warning of a violent chrysalis!
we ordered our butterfly garden. can't wait.
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