Metamorphosis and other big science words

     I am never a fan of those very nicely polished projects that end up looking perfect. I am skeptical of clean cuts and coloring within the lines.  On Pinterest it seems that every child's craft looks as though Martha Stewart herself contributed to the final project.  It seems as though the photo was taken by a camera I couldn't possibly afford.
     I prefer projects that look as though they were completed by a child, and not a particularly talented child at that.  Unfortunately this usually results in glue stuck to my table and tiny slivers of paper scattered on my carpet.  Sometimes we come up with a recycled robot man and other times the result is a bit more, shall we say, abstract?
     This project is not just cute and pretty, but it also has many phases, which is good for a long day at home (Oops!  Too late, summer is over!) and it is a science lesson too. The teacher in me is just giddy with excitement.
     We started this project at a free butterfly museum hosted at a local school, but you can easily make caterpillars at home.  All you need is a big Popsicle stick, some pom poms, pipe cleaners and googly eyes.  You can use an egg carton instead of a Popsicle stick. After you have made your very easy and cute caterpillars, take them on a walk around the garden outside (or under your dining room table if you haven't swept up yet from breakfast) to give your caterpillars something to grow on.  Of course, you can also read Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  It's an oldie but also a goodie.  Predictable but perfect.  Your very hungry caterpillars can eat the leaves in your garden, the leaves on the trees, the grass and also some junk just like the green friend in Eric Carle's book.


     The next step is to wrap up your caterpillar.  I used plastic grocery bags.  We put the caterpillars in, rolled them up and hung them from the ceiling just like chrysalises.  I cannot tell you how easy this was.  It was very easy.

     Then it was outside we went with some everyday *unused* tissues and watercolors.  Actually you can just water down some paint if you'd like.  You can use paintbrushes or if you have any water droppers handy, they do very well too.  Give the kids as many tissues as they would like and let them be creative.  Then leave them to dry and go check on the chrysalises (still not sure if that is a word).  This is when your children should take a three hour nap and leave you to watch the new episode of Burn Notice.
     It is time for you to be sneaky (while your children are sound asleep).  Creep back to the chrysalises and open them up.  Attach two butterfly wings for each butterfly.  I used tape because I am not Martha Stewart and this is a kids project we are going to throw out pretty soon anyway for goodness sake.  I think I even used masking tape because that's all I found, but I'd suggest clear Magic Scotch tape if you want to make it look a tad better.  You can attach the wings while they are still slightly damp but if they have fully dried by the time your Burn Notice episode is over, you might want to dab some water on the wings before wrapping them back up into the chrysalis.  This is because butterflies break out of their chrysalises with wet wings, so we might as well be authentic! Wrap the butterflies back up.  Did I mention you should have remembered whose butterfly was in which bag, hanging from which hook?  Oops.  You really should've done that.  If you hang the butterflies in the wrong spot, you could lose your cover since in nature, chrysalises don't tend to move around once they've attached.

Joshy's butterfly in his chrysalis, before being all wrapped up again by his sneaky mother.

     Now chances are your children have been bugging you all day about when the butterflies will be ready.  Much like a car ride barrage of "Are we there yet?" makes you just want to stop the car at the closest McDonald's Playland, you will likely be ready to get those damn butterflies out of their chrysalises and get the whole project over with!  So creep quietly back to the chrysalises (still hanging in the right spots).  "Help" your butterflies by unwrapping them carefully.  Lay them out flat and make ooing and awing noises.  Talk about why they are wet (look it up, you don't expect me to know, do you?).



Did I forget to mention that the boys like to wear ties?

    At this stage in life, a butterfly needs to dry off its wings before it can fly and seek out nectar to drink.  We brought our new friends outside to dry on the sidewalk and then we helped them flutter around our butterfly garden in front of our house.  In this case, it does help if you have bushes that are flowering. We have an appropriately named "butterfly bush", russian sage and also black eyed susans, all of which are favorites of butterflies at our house.  You can have about 7 minutes of fun with the butterflies fluttering around the flowers until someone's butterfly wing gets ripped and/or until one of the butterflies violently starts attacking your flowers with unbridled enthusiasm.  I've heard that if you have girls, they will be happy for about 10 minutes fluttering their butterflies around without causing harm to wings or flowers.

     So as you can see, this is a simple, fun and educational project to do with your children on a sunny day.  It helps if you use words like "metamorphosis" and "chrysalis" and even "pupa".  It helps if you refer to the caterpillar's "life stages" and/or "life cycle" and it's also a great opportunity to make connections to other creatures' life cycles and metamorphosis like dragon flies and frogs.  If your butterflies survived the fluttering around in the garden, you can even hang them for display in your home.  And once your children have learned more about butterflies, they will be more appreciative of these delicate and beautiful creatures in our world.  Joshy loves to chase them laughing hysterically, scaring them out of their wits, whereas Liam prefers to lure them onto his fingers with fruit juice or rotten fruit.  All in all, it's projects like these... done by actual real children... that make a sunny summer day one to remember with a smile.