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Up close with insects

12 Comments Toddler, Preschool, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade

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Lately I have spent a lot of time with QBoy and XGirl focused on insects. This is the first of several posts to document some of the activities we’ve done as part of our insect unit, which has included visiting an insect fair, raising butterflies, and raising silkworms!

Note: For more resources, printables and activities related to a variety of insects, please see my insects unit study page.

Up close with insects || Gift of Curiosity

Visiting an insect fair

There is a great science organization where we live that hosts an annual insect fair. To kick off our insect unit, our whole family went to the event a couple of weekends ago. There were so many insects, and I only managed to capture a small number of them on camera.

XGirl and I looked at meal worms, and in the green bin pictured below we got a glimpse of the adult beetles that meal worms turn into.

Up close with a meal worm || Gift of Curiosity

QBoy got to touch a butterfly pupa.

Up close with a chrysalis || Gift of Curiosity

And we got to see real examples of all four stages of the butterfly life cycle.

Butterfly life cycle || Gift of Curiosity

There were so many other wonderful insects as well – grasshoppers, walking sticks, ladybugs, and more. It was a great intro to our new unit for the kids.

Watching the butterfly life cycle in action

I also wanted to bring some of the learning home, so I ordered the Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden. (I actually had the butterfly pavilion already and just needed to order the caterpillars.)

The kids were so excited when our caterpillars arrived by mail. They loved to look at them every morning and every afternoon to see how they were growing and changing.

 Raising butterflies and watching their life cycle || Gift of Curiosity

About a week after they arrived, the caterpillars started hanging upside down from the lid of the cup. Then over the course of a day or so, their bodies changed into chrysalises.

Raising butterflies and watching their life cycle || Gift of Curiosity

At that point, I removed the chrysalises from the cup by taking out the paper they were attached to.

Raising butterflies and watching their life cycle || Gift of Curiosity

I then pinned the paper to the inside of our butterfly pavilion.

Raising butterflies and watching their life cycle || Gift of Curiosity

We then hung the pavilion in a corner and waited.

Raising butterflies 10

About a week later, we noticed that one of butterflies had emerged from its chrysalis!

Raising butterflies and watching their life cycle || Gift of Curiosity

Within the next two or three days, four butterflies had emerged.

Raising butterflies 11

The kids loved watching them and feeding them fruit and flowers.

Raising butterflies and watching their life cycle || Gift of Curiosity

Raising butterflies and watching their life cycle || Gift of Curiosity

After several days, we decided it was time to let the butterflies free. We took their habitat to our backyard and opened it up for them to fly away.

Raising butterflies 12

One by one they took off. One landed in our orange tree.

Raising butterflies 13

Another landed on the side of our house. The kids were fascinated to watch them take flight.

Raising butterflies 14

Watching the silkworm life cycle in action

In addition to raising butterflies, we have had the opportunity to raise silkworms as well!  The kids’ preschool raises silkworms each year, and their teacher was kind enough to give us a few silkworms to take home. (She has also been kind enough to provide us with the mulberry leaves they eat.)

Raising silkworms and watching their life cycle || Gift of Curiosity

We are using an old salad container to house them. The kids helped punch holes in the top so the silkworms would have enough air to breathe.

Raising silkworms and watching their life cycle || Gift of Curiosity

One thing I’ve learned about silkworms is that they poop a lot! But the kids really enjoy helping me to clean out their cage. XGirl in particularly has gotten very brave about picking up the silkworms and putting them into another container while I clean out the cage. And both kids love putting fresh mulberry leaves back in.

Raising silkworms and watching their life cycle || Gift of Curiosity

Raising silkworms and watching their life cycle || Gift of Curiosity

We have had them for less than two weeks, but my how they have grown in that time!

Raising silkworms and watching their life cycle || Gift of Curiosity

And as they’ve grown, we’ve noticed that they are eating so much more, and pooping so much more too!

Raising silkworms and watching their life cycle || Gift of Curiosity

They haven’t yet begun to spin their silk cocoons or turn into moths, but we look forward to that occurring soon. I’ll definitely share an update as our silkworms continue through their life cycle.

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.

Products mentioned in this post:

Filed Under: Toddler, Preschool, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, Insects, Science Tagged With: insects, caterpillars, silkworms

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Reader Interactions

12 Comments

  1. Tara from The Magnolia Barn

    May 29, 2013 at 9:22 pm

    Lovely pictures! We just finished our Butterfly Unit last week. It’s really an amazing process and my daughter had a blast when it came time to release them. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply to this comment
  2. PragmaticMom

    May 30, 2013 at 5:03 am

    What a great experience to hatch butterflies and moths! I want to do this too this summer with my kids!

    Reply to this comment
  3. Sarah

    May 30, 2013 at 12:14 pm

    This looks like so much fun — so does your mushroom activity! Looks like you guys have a lot of great stuff going on over there 🙂

    Reply to this comment
  4. Tracey M.

    May 30, 2013 at 5:49 pm

    We just order butterfly larvae this week! I can’t wait to raise butterflies with my daughter. She’s so excited! I used to raise mealworms and butterflies when I taught in the classroom. I haven’t ever seen a silkworm in the larva stage. Thank you for sharing your photos. I looked forward to seeing the rest of the photos.

    Reply to this comment
    • Katie

      May 30, 2013 at 8:30 pm

      Oooh, have fun with your caterpillars! I’m sure your daughter will love watching them grow and change into butterflies!

      Reply to this comment
  5. Julie

    May 31, 2013 at 3:27 am

    Cool and ewwwwww. I’m not sure I would like touching all of those bugs, but I love that you got to see the life cycle of butterflies. That’s awesome.

    Reply to this comment
  6. Lindsey@Kindred Spirit Mommy

    May 31, 2013 at 6:34 am

    This is SO cool! I know I’m going to have to get one of those butterfly kits now. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!

    Reply to this comment
  7. Ashley

    June 2, 2013 at 5:42 am

    We just released our butterflies too! Looks like you all had a great time at the insect fair (I didn’t know there was such a thing). Thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library!

    Reply to this comment
  8. Lucinda

    June 2, 2013 at 1:44 pm

    Wow you got some wonderful pictures! Thank you for sharing them. We’ve just got a butterfly garden and we’re going to get caterpillars as soon as we get back from vacation. Excited now I’ve seen all the wonderful things you’ve been doing!

    Reply to this comment
    • Katie

      June 2, 2013 at 2:16 pm

      Enjoy raising your butterflies! I’m kinda sad ours are gone. Of course, we still have our silkworms but they are all in their cocoons right now so we are waiting for them to come out.

      Reply to this comment
  9. Ticia

    June 8, 2013 at 10:08 pm

    I love raising caterpillars into butterflies. I really need to let the kids do that again, they’d love it.

    Reply to this comment
    • Katie

      June 8, 2013 at 10:27 pm

      It was such fun for our whole family – my husband doesn’t get involved with most of our homeschool projects (since he’s usually not around for most of what we do), but he too was enthralled by our butterflies.

      Reply to this comment

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