Wk 10 Butterfly Life Cycle
There are many different ways that you can catch this miracle happen right before your eyes and we were lucky enough to see this amazing transformation at Pre-school this week. These live butterfly kits are great for children to learn all about the ever-changing caterpillar and the butterfly’s life cycle in general. After the butterflies hatch out of their pupas, we observed them for a little while and then let them go. Waving goodbye was a satisfying experience, and also a very important one to teach children. Children have to learn that animals do not need to be locked up and while it is okay to observe them sometimes, it is always best to let nature take its course.
Trying to keep the children safe and cool from the heat we made good use of the wild life garden and the shade it offered. Acting out the Hungry Caterpillar story we added play food for the children to pretend to eat a different fruit or treat while their caterpillar bodies grow and stretchy fabric to wrap themselves in as a 'cocoon'. Carrying on with some of the children’s schema they are experiencing we collected leaves and used them to wrap stones and daisies, pretending they were presents. (Schemas are repeated patterns of behaviours demonstrated by children). A child constantly wrapping things up – toys in blankets, den-making, covering paintings in one colour is likely that a child is in an Enveloping Schema, when children like to cover themselves or objects.
