Caterpillar Observation Update

Our class has been very excitedly watching our caterpillars growing and eating.  Every morning, everyone RUSHES over to see how they are doing.  We have noticed a lot of changes lately.  We also have been writing in these journals called "My Butterfly Observations".  We write about the life cycle 1 or 2 days a week.  We noticed that they have been eating and there's a lot of poop in the container!  We have been doing a lot of work on butterfly journals.  Our larvae has gotten very big now.  Our caterpillars have been getting a lot of fuzz on them.  They are molting lots of skin.  We are hoping they will make their chrysalis soon - around June 1st.  Caterpillars are getting long.  The butterflies fly to Mexico and they find a lot of butterflies.  (We read about the migration of Monarch butterflies in a book today.  They fly south for the winter to warm places like Mexico).  Right now the caterpillars are shedding their skin.  Our class is doing a live stream of our butterflies.  It's a live stream in our blog and Miss Matsumoto set up a camera to watch the caterpillars.  (A live stream is a video that shows our caterpillars in REAL time.  We hope to watch them over the weekend a bit when we are away from school  We predicted that this weekend, some may go into their chrysalis.)  The caterpillars are almost in the chrysalis stage and they are fatter.  If they turn into their pupas, they try to put all of the body into the pupa and then they wait.  The chrysalis becomes transparent, then you can see them.  Then they can go outside and they make their wings so they can fly.  I have been noticing a lot of webby stuff in the containers.  And we think that is their skin shedding.  After this, you should check out our caterpillar video that we put on our blog too!

Written by EVERYONE in Room 163