This morning, after two months of outdoor meet-ups {gotta enjoy the cool weather while we have it!}, our play school co-op resumed its usual themed indoor play dates. Grae and I were lucky enough to be the first hosts, and with our focus being on favourite children’s books this month, we got to plan a morning around Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Day 7: It’s official. All of our fuzzy little caterpillars have successfully built chrysalises and are hanging from their container lids waiting for the big transformation to occur.
Though it’ll still be several days until they start emerging as butterflies, this morning we moved our little table and hanging structure directly under our homemade butterfly hut. Now we wait patiently. As they start emerging, we’ll set out some food on top of the cardboard box and the butterflies will make their way up to the top portion of the hut while the others complete their transformation. We’re excited!!
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(showing them the impromptu drawing she did of the butterfly life stages) ‘Yook, chrysalises. Yook what I made for you.’
‘Hello, yittle chrysalises! Yook, I’m a butterfly just like you’re going to be!’
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With our butterfly enclosure ready and our first chrysalises ready to be hung, Miss G and I had to get a little creative this morning. When raising butterflies in my classroom, I used to hang the chrysalises from the inside of a wooden block that was open on two sides, but without one of those at our disposal, we decided to try and craft one. A box, some packaging tape, and a utility knife later, we had this. As you can see, it certainly ain’t pretty. Buuuut, it gets the job done.
Once the newly-formed chrysalises had been left alone for 12 – 24 hours, we very carefully lifted the lids off of the containers, gently loosening the webbing off of the container walls with a paintbrush if needed. Then we simply created tape rolls using a good strong masking tape, and stuck the lids to the ceiling of our homely box block. This is where they’ll hang now until the final step of their transformation takes place.
As for our other guys who are still busy eating, they all got a good container cleaning and fresh food. Let’s hope this is a welcomed change and not something that harms their ability to begin their transformation.
And while I was busy cutting, hanging, and cleaning, Miss G worked on her own project beside me. When she was done, she brought me her scrap cardboard and explained, “First we have fuzzy yittle caterpillars, and then they build their chrysalises. You wait for a long, long, loooooong time, and they POP out and be butterflies! Then the butterflies will fly, fly, fly away.” She never ceases to amaze me.
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After receiving our fuzzy little friends yesterday afternoon, Miss G and I were excited to get them settled into their new homes. Now while this particular kit said that we could leave the caterpillars right in the shipping container to build their chrysalises, I’ve always transferred them into smaller containers in the past, so I decided we’d go with what I know. That, and in my experience, some always progress slower than others, so having them in separate containers will allow us to hang the chrysalises in our butterfly home one at a time, as they are ready. It also makes it easier to whisk away a dead caterpillar if needed (the success rate of raising them indoors is about 80%, so you’re bound to lose one or two), though I’ve always taken the opportunity to explain the circle of life when it’s come up with my students.
In order to transfer the caterpillars into their new mini homes, Miss G and I retrieved a plastic glove, a small paint brush, a small spoon, and several small craft containers our good friend Little Miss Mama drilled holes into (the small take out containers you get for sauces work great for this purpose too – just use a tack to poke several holes in the lids).
With freshly washed hands, we carefully opened the shipping container and took a better look at our babies. Gracen supervised them closely as I scooped a small chunk of the provided artificial food into each container, making sure leave the dirty bits behind. With the food in the containers, I used a gloved finger to gently press it down into the bases.
Then, very carefully, we used the tip of our paintbrush to pick up our caterpillars one at a time and place them into their new homes.
While handling them as minimally as possible is definitely the key to success when raising caterpillars/butterflies, Miss G was absolutely desperate to hold one of her fuzzy friends. With clean hands and a promise not to move, I gently placed one in her little palm. He crawled around, she watched in wonder, and when he made his way off of her fingertip, we placed him in his new home.
Since the caterpillars will soon be building their chrysalises from the roofs of their homes (a.k.a. the inside of the container lids) and we’ll need to remove the lids to hang them in our butterfly home before the transformation occurs, we opted not to screw our lids on. Instead, we just set them on gently and will be extra careful around them.
In the next couple of days, we’ll be watching our caterpillars eat and grow while setting up their butterfly house. More fun to come soon!
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When I saw that the awesome teachers’ store in our hometown, Vernon Teach & Learn, was selling butterfly larvae, I jumped on the opportunity and immediately put an order through by phone. Now while I’m well aware that some people may think raising butterflies in your home is a tad on the crazy side, I actually think it’s pretty awesome. It’s something I’ve done with my Kindergarten classes in the past and the process is nothing short of amazing. For a child to be able to witness tiny caterpillars grow, build chrysalises, and emerge as butterflies up close and personal all in a span of a few weeks is pretty special. I can’t wait to share the experience with Grae. Ten fuzzy little caterpillars (two of which will be adopted by a friend tomorrow) arrived to our doorstep today and we couldn’t be more excited.
To order butterfly larvae of your own, contact Vernon Teach & Learn. They are incredibly helpful and kind, and our caterpillars arrived here to Vancouver the day after ordering. Their larvae packages can be found here.
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