The life cycle of a butterfly.

It’s a common topic amongst classes in primary school.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar story is read and all sorts of songs are sung about the changes that happen in that life cycle.

And there are so many activities that come from the story!

We often have the caterpillars in a special net to watch turn into chrysalises then butterflies. In fact, one of my colleagues’ father breeds them so she will bring over 100 ready, in a special net enclosure for the children to watch, and when the resulting butterflies come out, they have a mass letting go session!

But nothing beats nature, let’s be honest!

A few weeks ago my class patiently planted some seeds and the Nasturtiums had grown, and were almost ready to flower… until we noticed that something had been eating them!

And what we found, or actually what my pupils found, was amazing! There were dozens of caterpillars!

As we hunted further, we found eggs and have been watching them over the last few days, and have a range of caterpillars now from 1 mm long to at least 4 cm! I am hoping they at least get to see some real chrysalises too before we break up!

They’ve not left much in the way of leaves on one side!

And we even found a cabbage white caterpillar!

As I said, there is nothing quite like Nature to teach a child a lesson!