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We really enjoyed observing our butterflies using the Butterfly House kit Bug got for Christmas last year. I imagine we will be ordering more caterpillars in the future to repeat this project.

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Fairy watching the caterpillars.

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The caterpillars formed their chrysalis within a couple days and we moved them into their ‘house.’

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All five of the butterflies emerged within a few hours of each other.

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Here is a pretty Painted Lady Butterfly drying it’s wings (shot through the netting).

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Once all the butterflies were actively flapping around in the house we took them outside to let them go in the garden. They were not in a huge hurry to move on from their sugar soaked flowers.

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Our memorization piece for this week comes from First Language Lessons and happened by pure happenstance to tie in nicely with our Butterfly study.

The Caterpillar”

by Christina G. Rossetti

Brown and fury

Caterpillar in a hurry;

Take your walk

To the shady leaf, or stalk.

My no toad spy you,

May the little birds pass by you;

Spin and die,

To live again a butterfly.

Here are the illustrations the kids did to go with the poem.

Bug’s Caterpillar:

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Fairy’s Butterfly:

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