They were so cute and we learned about nature because one didn’t survive – Tess

I liked their tongues which were called proboscis and they went in and out as they were eating. – Calum

I enjoyed holding the butterflies when we let them go and I learnt that female butterflies had rounder bodies because they carry eggs. – Bethany

I’ve learned that they can lay up to 500 eggs – Nathan

When the caterpillars come out of their eggs the first thing they eat is their own egg! – Eilidh

I learned all about the different parts of the butterfly like the proboscis, thorax and abdomen. – Donovan

They have different names. A caterpillar can be called larva, chrysalis can be called pupa and adult butterfly called imago. – Josh

I liked it when we were holding all the butterflies and after they flew away we were still allowed to go up and hold them. – Beth

Butterflies only live for about 2 weeks. During that time they pollinate flowers and lay eggs. – Holly B

We learnt the lifecycle of a butterfly. A butterfly lays an egg and a caterpillar hatches out, then once the caterpillar is big enough it goes into a chrysalis. Then it waits a few days and when it comes out it is a butterfly. – Niamh

When a butterfly first comes out it’s wings are a bit wet so it flaps its wings to dry them. – Ava

When we let the butterflies go there was one with a crumples wing and when it went on everyone’s hand it kept falling to the ground – Emily

You could see the caterpillars eyes. They don’t have good eye sight, they can only see light. – Ellie

I liked it when we got to see one of the caterpillars form its chrysalis. It went to the top of the tub and wrapped itself in silk. – Ross

When the caterpillars were first here they started making silk – Chloe

The caterpillars have legs that stick out to hold on to the side of leaves. Prolegs are used to help them hang on. – Steven

When we let them go me and Ellie got to hold them. We put them on to leaves. – Isla

I liked when they were hanging with their silk webs – Jack

I learnt the mum butterfly out the eggs on a leaf so it could eat the leave when it hatches – Rebecca

When one caterpillar was going up to make its chrysalis it was hitting the others – Botan

I learnt that the caterpillar’s first meal was its own egg. – Holly M

I liked when we got told that we had to let the butterflies fly away. If we didn’t let them fly away they would have had hundreds of eggs. – Nicole

Some of the butterflies kept flying away when we tried to hold them. We fed them watermelon – Luca

On Monday morning we came to school and the other butterflies had emerged from their chrysalis. We fed them different types of melon, which they loved, and observed them for a few special days. Later in the week it was time to let the butterflies go. We will miss them but we have loved every minute!

This morning we came in and there were 5 butterflies! We were so excited and took turns to observe them closely in our groups. We looked at the different parts of their body and saw them use their proboscis to suck up sugar water.

Before break time we saw a butterfly try to emerge from it’s chrysalis. Unfortunately the butterfly did not survive as it became trapped. We used this as an opportunity to discuss the idea of ‘survival of the fittest’ and food chains.

We looked at their abdomen to check which were male and female. The females have rounder, fuller abdomens as they have eggs in them. We called the females Bella.

We decided to let the butterflies go this afternoon so they can fly around in the playground and  start the life cycle all over again!

We still have 3 chrysalis left and we are hoping that butterflies will emerge from them over the weekend.

Primary 5

When we came in the classroom this morning there was another butterfly and it’s wings came out dark but during the day they became more colourful. -Bethany

Today they started to flap their wings a bit and they were trying to fly. -Isla

We noticed some red stuff on the paper towels, it wasn’t blood it was bits of the caterpillar that the butterfly didn’t need. We put oranges in to the net for the butterflies to eat but they didn’t seem to like them so Nathan and Mrs Cunningham made up a sugar solution for them.  -Botan and Bethany and Holly M.

When they first came out they spread their wings and went upside down to dry out. – Nicole

I turned around to check on the butterflies when I saw something wiggling. I went over to check on them and then I seen a crack in it and it broke open. Then a butterfly just kind of fell out of it. Then I shouted ‘he hatched’ and everyone ran over to see. He climbed up the netting and went to the top of the net. We decided to call him Bob 1!

By Luca and P5a.

Our caterpillars went into their chrysalis and we left then for a few days to harden. Miss McCabe put them into their net and took them home in case they turned into butterflies but they didn’t!

One caterpillar has tried to make it’s chrysalis. The other caterpillars are eating their food. Some of the caterpillars are sleeping at the top of the tub and we are very exited to see what the butterflies look like. Miss McCabe will be gone next week and we will have to look after the caterpillars. They have made silk all over the tub. If they make their chrysalis when Miss McCabe is gone we will leave them three days to strengthen them and we will  have to put then in the net.

By, Emily, Beth

Tuesday 17th may 2016

Today Miss McCabe told us the parts of the caterpillar.

There really hard names to remember the names lets see if you can remember, here are the names of them Thorax ,Thoracic legs, spiracles, pro legs and ocelli.

when we looked at them we saw them using their thoracic legs to eat and climb. Their mane job is to eat

we had look very carefully to see their spiracles which is for breathing.

as we were writing this we saw one of the caterpillars producing waste!!

Ross and  Botan

IMG_3969 video

16^th of May 2016

They have got A LOT bigger. They use their two arms to climb up the glass and there muscles help them. They are crawling around a lot more. The tub is a lot dirtier and a lot of skin and silk. We now can  see their faces.

by Isla and Nathan

12th May 2016

The caterpillars have grown much bigger! They have started to shed their skin, they are getting rid of their exoskeleton. You can see their old skin , it looks like black dots. The caterpillars keep crawling up to the top of the tub. There’s one that’s still tiny so it must not be eating that much food. I can see their legs, they only have two. They are covered in hairs! Tonight we are going to wrap their tub in a blanket so they stay nice and warm.

By Jack and Ellie