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Abington School District, Copper Beech Elementary
School
Teacher Rosemary Rehill shares her experiences with STC's Life Cycle of Butterflies kit in her own words. Back in May 2002, my class of second graders at Copper Beech Elementary School studied STC's butterfly kit. Throughout the unit, the students were totally enthralled in observing and studying each stage of the butterfly's development. In past years, excessive heat has made the timing of events difficult to correlate with the lessons, but this year a move into a new school with air conditioning made the unit considerably easier to work with.
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When the live shipment of caterpillars finally arrived,
there was tremendous excitement. The children had been
eagerly awaiting and anticipating them. We had talked
extensively about what we expected to see. I had recorded
their predictions on chart paper and displayed it. This
year we were delighted to receive a double batch of
caterpillars so we had far more than we usually have. There
was a bit of a dilemma to know what to do with the all the
additional caterpillars as we were only given four butterfly
boxes. A colleague suggested that we set up a caterpillar
garden in an old fish aquarium and this seemed to work well.
The addition of masking tape around the top screen prevented
any caterpillar escaping and the clear glass made it much
easier for the children to watch the caterpillar's daily
development.
Each day the students would rush over to check on the
caterpillars changing development. There was
tremendous excitement the morning when they
discovered that virtually all their caterpillars had
changed into the chrysalis stage overnight. I always
left plenty of magnifying glasses by the tank so that
they could look at them whenever they wanted to. The
glass tank certainly made viewing easier than the
small plastic cups that are provided in the
kit. |
I took the chrysalis from the individual plastic cups and
gently taped them inside the butterfly boxes. Before we put
the lids on the boxes, I allowed the students to observe
them really closely. Prior to the observation we had
discussed what parts of the developing butterfly we might
see in the chrysalis.
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I constantly challenged the students to look closer
and to predict when and how the butterflies might
emerge. The twitching of the chrysalis fascinated my
students and generated a lot of
questions. |
While we waited for our butterflies to emerge, the children
worked on daily recordings of their observations in their
butterfly journals. Much of their work involved coloring and
cutting, which constantly reinforced the butterfly cycle.
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In one lesson, the children made butterfly wheels.
This involved cutting out and pasting the various
stages of the butterfly. As their work progressed, I
questioned them about each picture. I was able to
gain valuable insights into the depths of their
understanding and this was a help for me during
assessment. |
