Friday, June 5, 2009

Butterflies

"How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures." Psalm 104:24

Recently the boys and I observed the amazing transformation of caterpillars turning into butterflies. A good friend of mine did this project with her children, and I knew that this was a perfect activity for Grant, my little entomologist. We purchased a "butterfly habitat" from a toy store and ordered the caterpillar larvae to be shipped to us in the mail. They came in a clear plastic cup and grew into bigger and bigger caterpillars until one day, about a week later, they were hanging at the top in five perfect chrysalides. We placed the chrysalides into the butterfly habitat and waited for the butterflies to make their debut. About a week and a half later we had five beautiful butterflies. God really is creative!

Grant peering into the container with the caterpillar larvae soon after they arrived.

They're getting bigger! All that icky stuff is their food.

Looking at the new butterflies.

Releasing the butterflies.

2 comments:

Juliana said...

Cool project, Gretchen! You're much more tolerant of bugs than I am...

Jillian said...

Looks like this was a fun hands-on learning project for your kids. I'm so glad that it turned out well for you! Great memory for all!