Caterpillars have arrived to Senior Infants!

 We have had a very exciting delivery in Senior Infants from Insect Lore... a live Butterfly Garden!!

The parcel arrived with a cup with five caterpillars, their food, a booklet to teach us how to look after them, a net for the butterflies and food for the butterflies.

First we had to leave the cup of caterpilaars in an area in the classroom away from direct sunlight and draughts. The caterpillars were really tiny when they arrived. They got themselves nice and cosy in the classroom and starting eating the food in the bottom of the cup. Soon they were growing and changing and started to move around the cup a lot more.

As the caterpillars grew they started the webbing process and began to rest at the top of the cup. We knew that this webbing meant they were preparing to build their chryalis and hang from the top of the cup.

After a few days in their chrysalides it was time to transport the chryslides from their cup to the butterfly net to give them room to transform into butterflies. For this process we had to stay really quiet and carefully transport the lid with the chrysalides hanging on into a little prop in the butterfly net. We also had to carefully clean off any frass from the chrysalides that may prevent the butterflies from safely emerging from their chrysalis. Once the chrysalides were in their new home we left them to rest. Now we are waiting patiently for our butterflies to arrive any day now!