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A few weeks ago I shared a post about how we were raising silkworms. At the time, our silkworms were just worms, but now we’ve seen them through their entire life cycle! In this post I’m giving an update on our silkworms and showing the different life cycle stages that we have had the privilege of observing over the last several weeks.
Note: For more insect resources, activities, and printables, please see my Insects Unit Study page.
Not long after my first post about the silkworms, they began to spin their cocoons.
I did some reading and learned that they spin them in a figure 8 type motion. It was really fascinating to watch them moving their heads around as they made their cocoons.
Eventually, their cocoons were complete and we could not see them anymore.
They stayed inside their cocoons for about two weeks.
During that time, we checked on them everyday to see when they would come out.
And one day, I found our first moth! I have to admit, he (or she??) was a little funny looking.
The kids, of course, have loved watching the moths. And I’ve been doing some reading to learn more about them.
For example, I learned that silkworms do not exist in the wild anymore, but only in captivity where they are used for their silk. I also learned that silkworm moths do not fly. Apparently, the silkworms raised in captivity were bred to not fly. Our moths do flutter their wings a lot, but they do not get airborne.
Almost as soon as the moths came out of their cocoons, they began to mate.
In fact, they spend a LOT of time “making babies.”
And we’ve already seen them begin to lay their eggs.
And unfortunately, their life cycle is such that soon after they lay eggs, they die. In fact, a couple of our moths have already died, and the rest will probably follow soon.
While that will be kind of sad, it is how their life cycle works. And it has been such a great experience to raise these silkworms these last several weeks.
More insect learning resources
Insect printables from Gift of Curiosity:
- Insects Printables Pack
- Insects Do-a-Dot Printables
- Insects Anatomy Game
- Insects Grid Games
- Ant Printables Pack
- Ant 3-Part Cards
- Ant Do-a-Dot Printables
- Ladybug Do-a-Dot Printables
- Bee Do-a-Dot Printables
- Bee Sudoku
- Butterfly Do-a-Dot Printables
For more insect resources, activities, and printables, please see my Insects Unit Study page and my Insects Pinterest board.
Follow Katie @ Gift of Curiosity’s board Unit Ideas: Insects & Bugs on Pinterest.
Wow, what a great experience for you and your kids! My kids enjoy watching life cycles like this too. Thanks for sharing at the After School Link Party.
This is so cool! Maybe we’ll have to do this instead of butterflies in the Spring! Thanks for sharing – I love your pictures!
We did butterflies too, and both were pretty cool. The silkworm were more work, but that just made them more fun in a way. We had to do things like clean their cage every few days, which we didn’t have to do with the butterflies.
Oh what fun! We can’t wait for spring when our millions of eggs are going to hatch 🙂 Would you mind if I linked back to your post come September when our’s hatch?
Of course you can link back! How fun that you are going to hold on to your eggs until they hatch in the spring!
We did butterflies but now I want to try silk worms! Thank you for sharing this is really awesome!
Butterflies and silkworms were so different! I’m really glad we did both.
What a cool experience! We’ve done butterflies, but the silkworms are so different! Thanks for sharing at Teach Me Tuesday at Preschool Powol Packets!!
Yes, the silkworms were so different from the butterflies, which made it really cool.
This is simply amazing! What fun bug-inspired playful learning! Thank you for sharing it at the Kids CoOp. So thrilled to be featuring this post as part of my bug-a-boo play roundup. xo Pauline
Thanks so much for featuring our silkworms! We had so much fun raising them.