We learned about butterflies this spring and raised butterflies so students could witness their miraculous life cycle change up close. A special thanks to the PTO for the funds to purchase our butterfly kits!  We raised Painted Lady butterflies. They arrived as caterpillars in little jars on May 6th. The jar contained the food the caterpillars eat. For about a week they were busy eating and growing! They shed their exoskeletons several times while growing.

On May 11 our caterpillars started their transformation to the next stage of their life cycle.  Each caterpillar attached itself with a sticky substance to the lid of the jar.  They then hung in a “j” position and shed their exoskeleton one last time. This revealed the chrysalis that is underneath. Now the caterpillars were pupas. Their bodies changed to liquid inside the chrysalis and then reformed as a butterfly.

On Friday, May 20 our first butterfly emerged. When we returned to school on Monday we found 9 butterflies in our habitat. They drank a nectar substance while we observed them for a day and a half.

Today, May 24th, we released our butterflies into the Brecknock Butterfly Garden. Each butterfly flew off to explore and will hopefully return to enjoy the flowers we have planted.

This month we planted the Third Grade Butterfly Garden at Brecknock. This project aligned with our Performance Task for Module 6 where students are asked to educate the community on what we can do to help Monarch butterflies. Monarch butterflies only lay their eggs on milkweed which is the sole source of food for their caterpillars.  Milkweed is harder and harder to find in nature since humans are building and expanding. Monarchs also migrate all the way to Mexico each year for the winter and need to drink nectar from flowers to give them the energy they need for this long trip. The Brecknock Butterfly Garden has both milkweed and high-nectar producing annuals to help Monarch butterflies. We got donations of angelonia and marigolds from the Garden Spot High School Plant Science Class. All third graders helped to plant the flowers and spread mulch. Our class also created some educational cards which we “planted” in the garden so that visitors can learn a bit about butterflies when visiting the garden. We hope this garden will be home to the butterflies we are releasing as well as many other wild butterflies!

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