Butterfly Release Party

Evelyn's class has been observing, first-hand, the life cycle of a butterfly.  The class got their caterpillars about two weeks ago, and they have watched them make chrysalises and then emerge as butterflies.  

This morning Evelyn's class, along with one other class, held a butterfly release party.  The classes made a circle around the butterfly cages, and then they read a poem, thanking the butterflies for the opportunity to watch them grow.

 All of the painted lady butterflies flew out of the netted cages - some went straight to clover flowers,  others took off for the creek area, and some had to check out the students by landing on their heads.

 Here's Evelyn, trying to lure a butterfly to her clover flower.

 And here's Evelyn with a friend, getting really close to having a butterfly land on the flower.

 After releasing the butterflies outside, the students returned to the classroom for a life cycle snack.  Everyone divided their snack plates into four sections and got snacks that correlated with the different stages - yogurt-covered raisins were the eggs, gummy worms were the pupae/caterpillars, pretzel nuggets were the chrysalises, and butterfly crackers were the butterflies.