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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Bye-bye, butterfly!


Bye-bye Butterfly: raising and releasing painted lady butterflies with Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten
We've watched as our painted lady caterpillars grew large,
Bye-bye Butterfly: raising and releasing painted lady butterflies with Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten
made cocoons,
Bye-bye Butterfly: raising and releasing painted lady butterflies with Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten
and even as they hatched last week and today.
Bye-bye Butterfly: raising and releasing painted lady butterflies with Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten

We've seen their long proboscis sucking up juice from an orange,

Bye-bye Butterfly: raising and releasing painted lady butterflies with Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten
and provided them with flowers too. 
Bye-bye Butterfly: raising and releasing painted lady butterflies with Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten
We've learned a lot from watching them, but butterflies aren't meant to live in a cage, let alone inside.  It was time to release them.
Bye-bye Butterfly: raising and releasing painted lady butterflies with Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten
Several of the butterflies were ready, sitting on the net as close to freedom as they could get without a little help.
Bye-bye Butterfly: raising and releasing painted lady butterflies with Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten
 Most of them flew away quickly, but the last few took their time.
Bye-bye Butterfly: raising and releasing painted lady butterflies with Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten
This one sat on my hand as I went from child to child, giving everyone one last close up visit before it too flew.
Bye-bye Butterfly: raising and releasing painted lady butterflies with Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten
 This one knew a good thing, and stayed a little longer to drink it's fill.
Bye-bye Butterfly: raising and releasing painted lady butterflies with Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten
 What a wonderful experience! 

If you're raising butterflies too, you may like these butterfly resources I made to go along with this experience.   You can see them here and here.
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2 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 8, 2017 at 3:44 PM

    Where did you get that wonder fly butterfly enclosure?

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    Replies
    1. Paula's Primary ClassroomMarch 11, 2017 at 6:42 PM

      Hi Cheryl, I was so proud of making that butterfly enclosure! It's just a large plastic tub, some wire mesh from a home improvement store, and some light netting that I sewed to fit over it, with an elastic bottom. I put a sheet of heavy cardboard in the bottom to cover the wire frame, then set some butterfly friendly plants in it. The picture with the butterfly on an orange slice also shows the cup (from single serve applesauce), which I sewed through in 3 places so I could hang it in there too, with sugar water in it. It was a bit of work putting it together, but it was easy to use/remove, stored well in my garage, and was used every year for our butterflies.

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