Fly, Fly, Butterfly!

As we expected, when we returned to school after the long weekend, we saw that all the butterflies had emerged from their chrysalises!  Most of the butterflies looked very healthy and were flying around the flight cage.

A funny thing happened while Ms. Guerriero was cleaning the flight cage Tuesday morning.  One of the butterflies escaped!  Ms. G. could not catch the butterfly because it was flying too high around the classroom.  We think the butterfly will be okay, because it flew right out the door into the school yard.

On Wednesday, May 22nd, we all went outside and released the butterflies.  Some butterflies flew out right away, and we had to help some of the butterflies leave the flight cage.  We released the butterflies near the lilac bushes.  We think the butterflies like the lilac bushes, because we saw them using their proboscises right away!  (Your child will be able to tell you what a proboscis is.)

Here are some photos from our butterfly release:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Painted Lady Butterflies

As you are probably aware, we have been learning about butterflies in our class.
We received 27 very small Painted Lady caterpillars in April, and we watched them eat and eat!  They molted several times, and early in May, they molted for the last time and formed a shell around themselves called a chrysalis.

This video clip shows one of the caterpillars in the last stage of becoming a chrysalis.

 

 

Here are some photos of the chrysalises hanging in the flight cage:

 

 

 

 

  

The chrysalises have attached themselves to the filter paper that was in their caterpillar container.  The chrysalises were transfered to the flight cage. The filter paper is pinned to the flight cage.

 

 

 

Here is a photo of one of the 13 Painted Lady butterflies that had emerged as of Friday, May 17th.  We expect to see more butterflies by Tuesday, May 21st.

 

The butterfly is tasting the juice we placed in the flight cage. Can you guess what part of their bodies butterflies use to taste with?  Their front legs!  





 

Education Week at Nellie McClung P.S.

It was wonderful to see many of the students' parents and grandparents last Monday and Tuesday for Nellie McClung Public School's Open House.  It was obvious to see how excited the children were to show their parents/grandparents around the room.  One of the highlights was the 'caterpillar table'.  We heard many parents say that they have been hearing a lot about the caterpillars at home, too.  As teachers, we love to hear that the children are excited and happy about what is going on at school.

Thank you also for supporting our Scholastic School Book Fair.  Mrs. Gordon-Rak, our teacher-librarian, reported to us that it was a very successful book fair and raised a lot of money for the library enabling us to purchase many more books for the school library.

If you were unable to visit during the Open House last week, you are always welcome to come in to see what is going on in our classroom.  Just contact us to set up a date and time, and we'd be happy to have you come in.

 

Happy Mother's Day!

Sending all Mothers, Grandmothers and Great Grandmothers wishes for a very Happy Mother's Day!  We hope you all have a wonderful day with your families.