Butterfly Lollipops!

We are hand-raising monarchs this fall. After watching the butterflies emerge from their chrysalides we waited 24 hours until the wings dried before we handled them and hand-fed them Gatorade "nectar" on the end of a Q-tip.

What a thrill to feel the tickle of butterfly feet in our hands and the delicate wings held gently between two fingers. The butterflies loved their "butterfly lollipops" and gratefully extended their proboscis (their straw-like tongues) into the Gatorade-soaked paper towels to drink. Some butterflies sought nectar from the bouquet of flowers we brought in from the garden and put in the terrarium.

Every now and then a butterfly would escape from our hands and fly about the room. That was exciting for everyone. Kindergartners did a great job tracking the butterfly as it flew and when it landed and folded its wings up like sails on a sailboat, kindergartners picked it up ever so gently and returned it to the feeding station.

Wonder Awaits...

On the first day of school several children shared a most curious story. They told us that they found of two caterpillars hanging upside down like "Letter J's." "Come on, Tr. Ann, we will show you!" By the time we arrived to take a look, both caterpillars had become chrysalides. We wondered why the caterpillars decided to hang upside down under the window and near the vent cover.
We checked the chrysalides every day. They were green and had gold spots. They matched the Monarch chrysalides that we have in our classroom perfectly. Now we know that these are Monarch chrysalides, too! "Hmmm. How did a white, black, and yellow caterpillar make such a beautiful lime-green case with gold dots?" we wondered. Monarch caterpillars are white, black, and yellow-striped! How curious! When it rained, the chrysalides got a little bit wet; we could see the drops of water on them. We checked them everyday for one week. Three days ago we saw the patterns of Monarch wings appearing on the inside of the chrysalides.

Today we came back from outdoor play and had a surprise! Both butterflies had come out! One had already flown away (Aha! That explains the monarch we saw flying at outdoor play...) but the other was still hanging upside down drying her wings. We thought we could bring it indoors so that we could tag it tomorrow when we tag our other butterflies.

Gently we carried the butterfly indoors and put it in the terrarium.

We watched as it climbed up the netting...

...and joined the other butterflies near the top. We carried the terrarium to a nearby table so that we could watch them while we ate lunch. The new butterfly seems to be making friends already!