Preschool: Butterfly Wonder
“Look, a butterfly!” a very excited child showed her mother the beautiful monarch butterfly, which had hatched from it’s chrysalis overnight in a jar on our science shelf. One of our preschool families brought in three jars with chrysalises for the children to observe. The timing was perfect as we are currently studying living and non-living things as part of our science curriculum.
We discussed that all animals are livings things and that most living things use their legs, wings or fins to move. Non-living things, such as cars and trucks, cannot move on their own. They can move very fast, but people have to drive them. Food and water give living things what they need to stay alive. We gave our monarch butterflies tiny bowls of sugar water to help them build strength. The children were invited to go outside to the playground during a quiet time to gently release the butterflies one by one. We watched in awe as the small creatures flew out of the jars and up into the sky.
