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

Our Butterfly Journals and Experience

Wednesday, May 21

Wednesday, May 21

Wednesday, May 21

Wednesday, May 21

Friday, May 23

Friday, May 23

Monday, May 26

Monday, May 26

Monday, May 26

On Wednesday, May 21st we got a package with larvae in it.  Larvae are lots of little, tiny caterpillars.  First they started out in a tiny egg.  And then they turned into the larva.  And they will turn into big caterpillars and then they will make a pupa and they will sleep for a bit and then when they wake up they will break through and they will become a butterfly!  - Sierra

Some caterpillars are eating nutrients.  Caterpillars eat leaves and nutrients.  Caterpillars eat a lot of them.  And the caterpillars are getting big.  Caterpillars are this size of caterpillars.  And they are going to be a butterfly soon.  If they eat a lot of nutrients or leaves. Caterpillars sleep in the pupa.  The caterpillar just sleep a while to be a butterfly.  And the caterpillar is shaking and it gets out and turns into a butterfly.  The caterpillar is in Mrs. Kochan's class on a plate.   - M.

On Wednesday, May 21st we got a package with larvae in it.  Larvae are the caterpillars when they just come out of their tiny eggs.  We got them because we are going to watch their life cycle.  When we first got them, they were REALLY tiny.  But now, they have fuzz on them and they are getting fatter and they are longer.  They are almost full grown caterpillars.  They are going to grow up to be Painted Lady Butterflies.  We are sharing our larvae with Mrs. Kochan's class.  When we got them, Miss Matsumoto, our teacher and Mrs. Kochan had to make a special food for them to eat.  It's called nutrient.  They put the nutrient in the little plastic cups and we put the larvae in them.  They had a lot of nutrient in the cups and now there isn't so much.  The larvae have ate a lot.  - Ella

On Wednesday, we got a package.  In the package was larvae.  Do you know why we have larvae?  Because we are watching their life cycles - how they hatch from their egg and then turn into butterflies.  But we didn't get to watch them hatch from their eggs, they came as larvae.  Our class and Mrs. Kochan's class are sharing the larvae so we can look at them everyday so we can see if they have grown bigger or longer.  Some of classmates can see that they have some fuzz on them.  They were small on Friday, but over the weekend they ate a lot and they grew bigger and longer.  The butterflies that they are going to grow into are Painted Lady Butterflies.  Everyday, our class and Mrs. Kochan's class goes to look at the little caterpillars to see if they have grown bigger.  We have journals to write what we have seen for the caterpillars.  Lots of the caterpillars are shedding their skin.  When they are full grown, they make their chrysalis.  When they make their chrysalis', they are going to make them on their lid.  Then we will take the lids off and put them in this tent thing for the butterflies.  We have over 30 larvae.  I think that's all you need to know for right now, bye! - Evva

On Wednesday, we got a package!  In the package there was larvae.  We got the larvae because we are learning about their life cycles.  We put the larvae in little cups and Miss Matsumoto and another teacher, Mrs. Kochan had to make some food called nutrients for them.  They used to be really small but now they are getting pretty big.  Soon they will be making a pupa.  A pupa is a chrysalis.  They are going to be sleeping in the chrysalis for a little while and when they are ready they are going to come out of the chrysalis and become butterflies.  The type of butterflies we are getting is Painted Ladies.  We also have some Butterfly Journals where we are writing about them.  When they become butterflies we are going to let them go outside.  Now we are going to be learning about some different life cycles.  - Stella  

I can't wait until our butterflies grow into Painted Lady Butterflies!!!  - Lexie

Last week we got larvae in a package.  Larvae is a little innsy binsy caterpillar, but it's not fully grown.  After we got our larvae we were studying about butterflies and also we are working on Butterfly JOURNALS!  We are writing in our butterfly journals about what they butterfly's life is like.  Today, we watched a butterfly video about life cycles.  It was moving pictures of a real butterfly and words that are below the picture.  - Lara

On Wednesday, we got a package of larvae.  And we were learning about them before we got the package.  Then now today we were learning about other animals, I thought that we were just learning about butterflies, but Miss Matsumoto said that we were learning about more than just butterflies.  In June, we will have groups of three and then we are going to learn about other animals.  We have to decide as a group what animal we are doing and we have to take turns. - Lara

We got some larvae.  They've been eating nonstop.  Sometimes they rest.  They got bigger.  Some are still small.  They are going to be Painted Lady Butterflies.  - Isabella 

Introducing our Guest Blog Authors

Our class has decided to have guest blog authors for our blog.  And since we have been practicing and working hard at being writers, the guest blog authors are us!  Each week we will take turns writing on our class blog in partners.

We developed some criteria for expectations when working on the blog during Daily Five, as well as criteria for what we write about.  We have already started with our first two guest authors, Ella and Jonavyn.  Stay tuned for their post!!!