Saturday, May 30, 2009

Butterfly Release

It's time to release the butterflies. It's been so much fun watching them grow from caterpillar to chrysalis then transform into butterflies. The kids were so excited to take them outside to release them into the outdoors where they can lay their eggs and start the cycle over. We walked across the street to the cemetery behind the school where there is more vegetation and flowers so the butterflies have plenty of food and plants to lay their eggs.

Here we are walking toward the cemetery to release our butterflies.

Here are the butterflies in their temporary habitat waiting to be released.

Yummy oranges!

I think the butterflies liked the oranges and didn't want to leave them behind.

The kids were so excited to watch them and it was wonderful that the butterflies didn't fly away immediately. They just hung around for the kids to enjoy and experience.

This is the littlest of the butterflies that we had in our classroom. The kids were so afraid she wouldn't make it. The other butterflies were nearly twice as big as this one.

I loved the pictures I got when one of them landed on the branch of a bush. I took more pictures than I can share and I can't show any of the kids faces. I know you'll understand the importance of privacy and I hope you enjoy the pictures

12 comments:

Trisha said...

How fun! My kids both did that in kindergarten with the butterflies. A fun learning experience for them.

blushing rose said...

Awesome! What a great way to learn about butterflies ... TTFN ~ Marydontuasts

Jocelyn said...

What a very fun project. I know your kids will remember this for along time to come :-)

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

that is so cool for the kids!
Karen
http://karensquilting.com/blog/

Pat said...

How wonderful for the kids to experience this kind of activity. Thanks for sharing it with us along the way, too.

Kim Brackett said...

How cool! That's a great thing to do for the kids. Thanks for sharing the experience.

Carol said...

Oh Kim! That is just wonderful!!!

Helen said...

When our own children were young, each fall we would go and look on milkweed plants for Monarch caterpillers.

We would find them, take them home and watch as they made their most-beautiful chrysalis and then waited.

About Labor Day they emerged from their chrysalis and were ready soon after to be released.

My girls still talk about this and are doing the same thing with their children.

Ahh, gotta love the cycle of life and the love of good memories that our children carry on with their families.

Hugs

Pretty Things said...

That's really cool! I would love to do that with my son.

A Spoonful Of Sugar said...

What a wonderful activity for the kids! Great way to learn about the life cycle.

Thimbleanna said...

What beautiful pictures Kim! I love the one with the oranges -- I didn't know butterflies liked oranges!

Rosefairy said...

Such beautiful butterflies! I was a month ago on the island Mainau to Bodensee (Germany). There were also butterflies.

http://kreuzchen.blogspot.com/2010/06/ein-urlaubstag-auf-der-insel-mainau.html

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Sjm5aqRCTZE/TAu-lhvsThI/AAAAAAAAQwY/0z4TGXhfGfg/s1600/Schmetterlinge01_1200px.jpg

Rosefairy