Each spring for the past 4 years we have seen a little bit of magic happen on our kitchen counter. Tiny caterpillars arrive in the mail and over the next week or so grow so quickly you can almost see it happening. One day they find a cozy place to hang and you blink and they are no longer caterpillars, but tiny chrysalides. The rest of the action takes place inside, and we wish we had x-ray vision to let us see. One day, out come butterflies!
Raising butterflies from an Insect Lore cup of caterpillars is a very easy and fairly fool-proof way to share this magical life cycle with kids at home or school. Read on to find out how simple the process is and my recommendation for purchasing what you need.
Please note, this blog post was not written in partnership with Insect Lore. My opinions about their products come from my experience with them and I was not compensated to review their products. This post contains affiliate and referral links, meaning I receive a small
commission or points from purchases made through these links at no additional cost to you. Please see
disclosures for more information.
Butterfly Kits
Raising caterpillars into butterflies is a very easy and foolproof process with Insect Lore'sButterfly Garden kit. We purchased our first kit from Amazon to save a few dollars, but have continued to buy our Painted Lady caterpillars each year directly from Insect Lore. If you want to purchase your butterfly habitat with live caterpillars rather than a voucher to get the caterpillars at a later date, you should buy directly from Insect Lore. I recommend signing up for their newsletter as well and you will find many opportunities for sales like BOGO cup of caterpillars, kits and bonus gifts. (Plus their newsletter is fascinating, it's one of the few company e-mails I receive that I actually read all the way through!)
Our caterpillars always come quickly and in good health. The only issue I've had is that once there were only 4 caterpillars in our cup instead of 5. Customer service was very responsive and easy to work with. Our problem was resolved very quickly. I have always been so happy with this company.
Be sure that when you order your caterpillars it is the right time of year and temperature in your region to release them safely and for their health. Your caterpillars will arrive promptly after ordering them and you don't want it to be too cold or too hot for them to be traveling in the mail. You might also want to investigate whether or not you have a natural food source available for Painted Lady Butterflies. Flowers in the mallow and thistle families are good choices. You can learn more about the habitat requirements of Painted Lady Butterflies here.
Observing Butterfly Metamorphosis
The caterpillars come in a cup that holds all of the food they will need to grow over the next 2-4 weeks. You can leave them enclosed in the cup until they have each made a chrysalis. My one caveat with this is that it doesn't really show children how a caterpillar feeds in the wild. Munching away at some brown gel in the bottom of a cup isn't like munching at a plant. However, since we have young kids this is a really easy way to raise the caterpillars, and it proves very successful. We've only lost 2 butterflies from the 30 or so we have raised. The caterpillars are fascinating to watch and they grow SO, SO QUICKLY. It is mind boggling. It really is kind of like The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Raising the caterpillars in a cup is a great teachable moment to investigate native plants and host plants for insects. You can work on answering the questions: How is this different than the Painted Lady Butterfly's life cycle in nature? What is a host plant? What part of the plant does a caterpillar depend on? What part of the plant does an adult butterfly depend on?
One day the bigger caterpillars begin to hang from the top of the cup in a "j" shape, and that is when you know that they are getting ready to pupate. Soon after there are chrysalides hanging from the lid of the cup where the caterpillars once were.
Then it is time to move the critters to their butterfly habitat while they make their incredible transformation. We are "Waiting for Wings"!
One day, those butterflies will emerge from their chrysalides. We have only actually witnessed it a few times, it happens very quickly. We feed our adult butterflies sugar water from a sponge, orange slices, and watermelon. The butterflies love watermelon! It is so cool to see that curly proboscis unfurl and slurp up the sugary liquid. This is a great time to make some observations that would be difficult to observe in the wild.
After a few days we release our Painted Ladies. It's always a bit of a bittersweet moment as we really enjoy having them, but it is also exciting to see them fly away and be free!
Take an Insect Class!
If your kids are wild about insects like mine, maybe they would enjoy my "Invent an Insect!" online class on Outschool. Learn the parts of an insect through games, songs and more in a lesson that I've had success teaching for almost 2 decades! Check out the schedule here. If you are new to Outschool, use my referral coupon code: MSSARAH2020 to receive $20 credit towards your first Outschool classes. You can find other coupon codes here.
Empower your children or students by showing them some activities that can work toward solving the world's declining bee populations. Whether you are studying pollination, planning an Earth Day project, or teaching an insect unit, understanding the importance of bees to all ecosystems and our food supply is important and interesting at any grade level. In this post you'll find some children's book suggestions for learning more about bees and a bunch of ways you can contribute to professional science through easy bee citizen science projects.
This post is part of the 2019 Storybook Science series on the Inspiration Laboratories blog. For more activities linked to great children's books as well as other citizen science projects to try, check out the list of posts in the series here.
This post contains affiliate links, meaning I receive a small commission from purchases made from these links at no additional cost to you. Please see disclosures for more information.
Picture Books for Inspiring a Love of Bees
Bee & Me is a delightful wordless picture book by Alison Jay. It is the fictional story of a girl who meets a bee and cares for it in her city apartment. It eventually grows bigger than the girl and longs for flowers. They travel to the country to collect flower seeds and spread them around the city. The following spring the city is in bloom from sidewalk to roof tops.
Although the story is fantasy, it is a nice entry point to learning about the needs of bees and their part in the life cycle of plants. The end pages have suggestions for attracting and learning more about bees. Another bonus about this cute story is that it has no words, so you could share it with a wide variety of ages from readers to non-readers alike. This is just one example of some of the great new picture books that can inspire STEM activities with kids.
Another bee book I am highly anticipating is the unreleased, "Next Time You See a Bee" by Emily Morgan. The books in the "Next Time You See..." series are well written, engaging non-fiction stories that make great read-alouds for home or the classroom.
Kids Help Professional Scientists: Bee Citizen Science
Citizen Science is a method of crowdsourcing scientific research. Through the participation of volunteers, more data can be collected than might be otherwise. There are many kid-friendly citizen science projects.
There are so many ways people of all ages can contribute to science,
whether it is local or online. Here are several ways to monitor and
identify the bees in your area with kids. Contribute your observations
to a science project and be part of an important scientific process.
Through Bumble Bee Watch go on a scavenger hunt for bumble bees. Snap a photo and submit it for identification. Grab a bumble bee field guide and have kids try their hand at identifying the bees.
With the Great Sunflower Project you can learn how to attract and count pollinators in your
yard, and even get discounts on pollinator friendly seeds. Make observations to count how many pollinators visit your yard or observation area, then submit your count!
In the fall, take The Goldenrod Challenge. Team up with others to see how many different bees you can spot on goldenrod flowers and report your findings.
If you live in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri or Ohio you can observe and count bees for the BeeSpotter project.
Visit PollinatorLive for all sorts of different pollinator citizen science projects as well as resources for teachers.
More Bee and Pollinator Activities
If you are looking for more activities to keep the bee and pollinator learning going, try out the following:
Just about everyone finds fireflies alluring and magical. In this post I'm excited to not only share a fabulous, funny and scientific new children's book all about fireflies, but also a free language arts and science printable activity and a STEM activity that combines firefly communication, life cycles and electric circuits for some light-up fun!
If you are a teacher or a parent, there is bound to be something in here that keeps your children or students engaged and gets them excited about fireflies. Read on to find out about all the activities listed above, including how you can align them with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
This post contains affiliate links, please see disclosures for more information.
How to Survive as a Firefly
If you love kid's books that are not only fictional and funny, but also scientifically accurate, How to Survive as a Firefly by Kristen Foote, illustrated by Erica Salcedo, is definitely for you.
A group of eager firefly larva learn the ins and outs of their own life cycle from an adult firefly drill sargent. The humorous book outlines the life cycle of Photinus pyralis, the most common firefly in North America.
Woven throughout the silly story are serious biology vocabulary words such as bioluminescence and aggressive mimicry. Despite the great number of syllables in these words they are made completely understandable in the text. Fun firefly facts are found on many pages as well. An upper elementary science class, or STEM loving kids at home will get a big kick out of this book.
Adult fire flies, blink in various patterns with their bioluminescent abdomens (depending on species, temperature, etc.) to communicate with each other. This helps fireflies attract mates. Scientists study these patterns to learn more about fireflies.
You can learn these patterns or make up your own firefly language too! Use this free printable life cycle sheet to start your light-up firefly project.
**PLEASE NOTE: Lithium coin cell batteries can be harmful and even fatal if swallowed. Please take care that they are out of reach of small children.
Step 1:
Poke a hole with the prongs of one LED light bulb through the life cycle sheet on the adult firefly's abdomen.
Step 2:
Flip the paper over. Peel off a piece of copper tape and add it horizontally just above the prongs of the LED (see image below). Make a sharp corner, either by folding (see tips here) or by using another piece of copper tape. The tape should stop about an inch above the bottom edge of the paper.
[Please note: if your copper tape is not conductive on both sides, you must fold the corners, because placing one piece on top of another will break the circuit. The type I purchased and have used here is conductive on both sides, so you can layer on top with no problem.]
Step 3:
Add a longer piece of copper tape horizontally just under the prongs of the LED. Again, make a turn or add another piece vertically below it. Make another corner, or add another piece so that the copper tape follows along the bottom edge of the paper right to the horizontal edge. Be sure there is a gap between the bottom of the first copper tape strip and this one.
Step 4:
Test out your circuit before you tape anything down. Fold the prongs of the LED down so that one is touching one strip of copper tape, and the other touching the second strip of copper tape. Place the coin cell battery on the bottom of the first strip of copper tape.
You might need a second set of hands to help hold things down while you then fold up the bottom edge so that the copper tape makes a connection with the top of the battery. If the LED does not light, try adjusting where the copper tape is touching the battery. If it still will not light, rotate the light so that the prongs are making contact with the opposite strips of tape. The LED will only work in one direction.
Step 5:
Once you've determined whether your battery and light bulb are in the correct position, and you've gotten it to light up, tape down the prongs of the LED and the battery. Be sure you aren't covering up the battery where it needs to make contact with the copper tape.
Step 6: Completion!
Now you can use your paper circuit firefly to blink and communicate with your classmates. Close the circuit by pinching the paper around the battery.
Have you ever tried calling a firefly? I've done it while leading families on a night hike. It is pretty magical. Learn more about how you can do this with only a flashlight by following this family friendly link, or this slightly more technical one. (If you are an outdoor educator, the latter link is a must-read!)
You may not be aware of this, but when you purchase a book published by The Innovation Press, like How to Survive as a Firefly, you are not only getting a great book for the children in your life, but also helping others. For every 10 books sold, The Innovation Press donates one book to First Book, getting books into the hands of kids and schools in need.
Did you know that bees dance to communicate with each other? It's true! Scout bees collect information on where the best food sources are and bring this news back to the hive. They then do a series of dance moves in which the location of the food source is encoded.
My post, Code a Message in Dance...Like a Bee, on the Rainy Day Mum blog, includes a free printable to help kids create their own coded messages through dance. It is a wonderful way to explore animal communication while honing coding skills. Click here for the bee dance post and read on for more info and bee learning resources.
This post contains affiliate links, please see disclosures for more information.
Create Your Own Dance Language
Bee dances appear simple, but contain complex information. Older children will be fascinated by the specifics of these messages and how they can create moves that encode secret messages, while younger children might simply enjoy the idea of using dance to tell a story.
You'll also definitely want to check out the picture book, Bee Dance, by Rick Chrustowski. It has great illustrations and explores the idea of bee communication in story form, easily understandable for children of any age.
If you are interested in other books about the fascinating social lives of bees, you might want to find the picture book Are You a Bee?by Judy Allen.
Click on over to my guest post in the Storybook Summer series on the Rainy Day Mum blog where you can find out more about these fascinating bee dances. You'll also find some great picture book suggestions to read to kids about bees and their dances, in addition to a fun dance coding activity to try.
I am so thrilled to be sharing a new science-themed fiction book series: Zoey and Sassafras
with you! I've found there are great non-fiction kid's books to spark a
love of science, and wonderful fictional picture books that have themes
that can be used in the science classroom. Zoey and Sassafras manages to do both! Read on to find out more about this book, and how to use it to spark curiosity in science. You'll find the directions for a Next Generation Science Standards aligned insect investigation lesson as well as a free printable Zoey and Sassafras themed science journal. I guarantee this book series and activity will be a big hit with your students or kids at home!
This post contains affiliate links, meaning I make a small commission from purchases made from these links at no additional cost to you, please see disclosures for more details.
Zoey and Sassafras: Dragons and Marshmallows
Zoey and Sassafras: Dragons and Marshmallows is the first book in this fun series by Asia Citro. This illustrated chapter book, aimed at readers in Kindergarten through 4th grade, features a curious girl named Zoey and her cat Sassafras. Zoey loves science, insects and other animals. She's not only a strong female character, but also, incredibly relatable to any kid who loves investigating questions, getting down in the dirt, and a little bit of magic. The series is perfect for budding scientists, aspiring veterinarians and zoologists.
I fell in love with Zoey immediately because the story opens with her flipping over a big, mossy rock to investigate what creatures lie beneath it. She proceeds to build a bug circus with what she has found. Flipping over a rock in search of insects and other macro-invertebrates is something you could find me doing when I was a kid (and admittedly, you still might find me doing it today!).
Zoey and Sassafras are tasked with caring for some magical animals in the series. To do so, they must use scientific thinking. Skillfully woven throughout the story are examples of experimental design, science vocabulary, and scientific reasoning. There are examples of science journal entries throughout and a glossary of science terms at the end. You can read a sample of the first story here, but be warned, you'll want to know what happens next! Since we love insects and other crawly creatures, we thought it would be fun to design some experiments just like Zoey does. So, grab your thinking goggles, because off we go!
Design Your Own Insect Investigation
The most important part of an insect investigation is understanding that you are working with living creatures, and that they must be treated with kindness, care and respect. Be gentle with anything you collect, and be sure to return it to where you found it before too long!
drinking straws or other natural tubes, like plant stems (for making a bug hotel, see below)
...and basically anything else you can come up with! Just remember to be gentle with your creatures!
Let's learn more about what insects need, just like Zoey and Sassafras had to do with their dragon in Dragons and Marshmallows. First, you'll need to collect some insects, bugs, worms or other small creatures. Look under rocks, small logs or pieces of bark. Dig in the soil. Where else can you find them? (If you need creatures for a classroom project and/or live in an area where you can't access nature easily, you can investigate crickets purchased online or at the pet store, or even worms sold as bait! The same careful, respectful handling rules apply to these creatures.)
Experimental Question and Hypothesis
Time to start your investigation. Leave the experimental design open-ended for young minds to ponder. Here are some ideas for experimental questions:
Does my animal prefer light, or dark?
Would my animal like to live where it is damp or dry?
What types of food does my animal prefer?
What type of home would my creature like to live in?
What is your hypothesis? Be sure to make one before you begin!
For more excellent STEM activities and extensions to compliment Zoey and Sassafras, check out the book's website here.
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
Kindergarten:K-LS1-1
(making observations of what animals need to survive)
2nd Grade:2-LS4-1
(making observations to understand the diversity of life in different habitats)
2nd Grade: Take it a step further- include plant investigations! 2-LS2-1
(design an investigation to see if plants need light and water to grow)
Are you looking for other NGSS aligned lessons that deal with small critters? Check out one of my favorite curriculum books: More Picture Perfect Science and the "Wiggling Worms at Work" lesson. It uses 2 great children's books: Diary of a Worm, and Wiggling Worms at Work.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of Zoey and Sassafras: Dragons and Marshmallows in exchange for an honest review. Zoey and Sassafras character art is used with express written permission from Marion Lindsay and The Innovation Press.
As the seasons change from summer to fall to winter, animals living in more northern climates have three options: migrate, hibernate or bulk up! One of the most amazing migrations is that of the monarch butterfly.
If you are studying about migration this fall, or about winter adaptations, then the monarch butterfly is a fascinating example. Here are ideas for learning activities for students in preschool all the way through high school.
This post contains affiliate links, meaning I make a small commission from purchases made from these links at no additional cost to you. Please see disclosures for more information.
image: Kenneth Dwain Harrelson [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], via
Wikimedia Commons
All About Monarch Butterfly Migration
Monarchs are the only butterflies to make a round-trip migration, similar to a bird. Other types of butterflies overwinter as either larva or pupa. Since adult butterflies depend on flowers for nectar they can't find food in areas where snow and ice are the norm.
In order to travel long distances (sometimes up to 3,000 miles!) they take advantage of warm pockets of air called thermals, and air currents. Each day they travel 5-100 miles until they reach their winter resting ground.
The monarchs that I see flitting about in the Northeastern part of the U.S. will head to Mexico, while those in the Northwestern part of the country spend their winter in California.
If you're studying monarch butterflies or migration in your school or homeschool there are activities that can be done with all ages. Citizen science projects are wonderful for older students, while younger students enjoy learning about life cycles and the concept of migration.
Here are some ideas for learning about monarch butterflies at each age level.
Study Monarch Migration in Early Childhood
Role play the life cycle of a butterfly. Have students curl up in a ball to be an egg, then hatch and stretch and inch along like a caterpillar. Then they'll find a cozy spot and stay still for a bit while they are a pupae. Finally they are ready to climb out of their chrysalis and flap their wings as a butterfly. One of my favorite books to accompany this activity is Lois Ehlert's Waiting for Wings.
If it is spring, you can watch a butterfly life cycle right in the classroom. My family raises butterflies successfully every spring. You can learn all about raising butterflies here. You can use a live butterfly kit, or butterflies from your local butterfly conservatory, observe the stages of metamorphosis, then have a release party your butterflies emerge from their chrysalids.
Read a story and then show on a globe or map where the butterflies migrate to. Developmentally, maps are a little tricky for Early Childhood, but you will at least be conveying the message that they go from one place to another during migration. One of my favorite monarch migration picture books to read to little ones is Gotta Go, Gotta Go by Sam Swope. The rhyming text and adorable pictures are perfect for a read-aloud.
Study Monarch Migration in Elementary
Watch and learn about monarch life cycles with the Kratt Brothers with this lesson plan and video from Wild Kratts on PBS. These resources are available through PBS LearningMedia, which I highly recommend exploring. There are tons of great resources and short video clips to hook students before you delve into your hands-on lessons.
Participate in some citizen science by reporting observations and analyzing migration data of many species including monarchs at the Journey North site.
Pollinator Week happens each June! What better time to investigate one of my favorite plant pollinators? Butterflies!
I decided to build some butterfly feeders to see if I could attract even
more butterflies to my yard this year. This will be an experiment that
will last all summer long. I want to know where butterflies spend the
most time in my yard and what type of butterflies visit. You can try it
too!
This post contains affiliate links, meaning I may receive a small commission if you purchase something from one of these links, at no additional cost to you. Please see disclosures for more information.
Build your own butterfly feeder
First I made two different types of butterfly feeders. One is a jar feeder, and the other is a plate feeder. Both used either recycled materials, or things I found around the house. I used the following materials:
1. Punch a hole in the lid with the hammer and nail.
2. Cut a strip of sponge and poke it through the hole in the lid. You may need to use the nail, or a pair of tweezers to get it through.
3. Decorating your jar with bright flower colors or faux flowers can help attract your butterflies. I used some bright foam insect stickers.
4. Tie some string on the jar to create a hanger. Remember that your jar will hang upside down, with the sponge sticking out the bottom. I added a little duct tape to secure the string, just in case!
5. Make the sugar solution. Mix 4 parts warm water, 1 part sugar to dissolve.
6. Fill your jar, flip it over and hang it up!
The plate feeder was even easier to make.
1. Poke holes for the string with the hammer and nail. If you have a scrap block of wood to hammer the nail into, it helps prevent the plastic from cracking.
2. Make a hanger with some string.
3. You may want to find something with a little weight, like a rock to place in the middle of the plate to keep it from blowing too much in the wind.
4. Fill your plate with bright fruit. Slices of banana that have been in the freezer, and orange slices are good choices. I varied what was on my feeder based on what I had in the house that day. You can add some orange juice or sugar solution to help keep the fruit from drying out.
**Watch your fruit and replace it if it begins to get dried out or moldy. Also keep in mind that any type of feeder can attract unexpected and possibly unwanted animals to your yard. For example, if you are in an area with black bears, it's not a good idea to leave your feeder out over night.**
Observe Butterflies
Now you have two feeders to observe, and any plant that butterflies enjoy visiting in your yard! You can now begin your experiment. Find out which plant or feeder the butterflies in your yard prefer. Begin making observations. You can use this printable observation sheet to keep yourself organized.
Any time you put a new feeder in your yard, it takes time for the animal you are hoping for to establish itself. When I hung my feeders the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies that are plentiful in our yard were very busy slurping nectar from the late-blooming lilac bush nearby. I coaxed them to the feeder with some lilacs. They are still more interested in these flowers than the feeder. I wonder what will happen once the lilacs are finished blooming? The only way to find out is to keep making good observations!
You will no doubt observe other visitors to your feeders as well. Within a few days, I noticed a pair of Evening Grosbeaks swoop down and check out the feeders, quickly moving on once they realized there were no seeds to be had. I've also spotted ants attracted to the fruit.
Once you've found your butterflies to observe, you'll want to identify them! There are so many different types of insects, and so many different butterflies! Where do you start?
