Butterflies!

At school, one of the big science units in that I teach in the spring is all about life cycles. This includes the butterfly life cycle and it's complete metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly. I have little pet tanks that are filled with milkweed and passion vine for the monarch and gulf fritillary butterflies and we watch as they eat and grow, eat and grow until finally turning into a chrysalis and then a beautiful butterfly. Well, not only do my fourth grade students really get into this but so does Jonah. He can tell you all about the butterfly's life cycle including the big words like chrysalis. He loves holding the caterpillars when I clean out the tanks and letting the butterflies go "fly free" when they are ready. This year we ending up with over forty butterflies, thanks to one that laid a bunch of eggs on our passion vine...One day we set free over ten butterflies....

My little scientist....