Raising Monarch Butterflies
Butterflies come in many different colors and patterns. You can help your child learn about butterflies (and even one very special migrating butterfly — the monarch) by rearing butterflies and creating a butterfly garden where butterflies will come for a drink of sweet nectar.
Before You Play
Before you raise monarch butterflies, encourage your child to learn about its life cycle. Visit MonarchWatch.org or read books such as Gail Gibbon’s Monarch Butterfly or Deborah Heiligman’s From Caterpillar to Butterfly. Encourage your child to also learn about the parts of a butterfly. Have him draw a monarch butterfly or butterflies he’s seen outside (check a butterfly guide like, Peterson First Guide to Butterflies and Moths to learn about butterflies native to your area). Then help him label parts of the butterfly including the head, proboscis, antenna, thorax, wings and legs.
Materials
Directions
Obtain monarch eggs or caterpillars either by collecting them or by ordering them on sites such as ButterflyBushes.com or MonarchWatch.org. Make sure to have a source of fresh milkweed to provide food to the caterpillars.
Wash the plastic containers with water (no soap) and dry carefully. Place the caterpillar and milkweed in the container. Cover the top with wire mesh so the caterpillar will have somewhere to attach when it goes into the chrysalis phase. Encourage your child to care for the caterpillar by asking him to change the milkweed every two days and to clean out the waste pellets at the same time.
Once the caterpillar goes into chrysalis, you can remove the milkweed if you wish. The caterpillar will attach to the wire mesh and go into the chrysalis stage (which looks like a little green oval). During the process, keep the container in a spot where your child can see it everyday and talk about the progress of the caterpillar’s change into a butterfly (some ideas for discussion include the growing size of the caterpillar, the transformation to chrysalis, the change of the chrysalis from green to clear and the emergence of the adult butterfly). Have him draw or record his observations.
The chrysalis stage lasts for 14 days before the caterpillar emerges as a butterfly! Once the butterfly has emerged, it will need to be released within the same day. Take the container outside and help your child release the butterfly.
Science