Today, instead of buddy reading, we did buddy writing with Tui 1 (Year 4) students after inviting them to look in our garden. Our class taught Tui 1 about caterpillars and butterflies. Here are some of the stories our class wrote with our buddies.
Our Story
We
saw a chrysalis, and we saw one that had fallen down. We learned how to
thread a fallen chrysalis and peg it to a container. They put a tissue
so that if the chrysalis fell down it would land softly.
We learned ways
that a caterpillar could get a disease. We learned about how a
chrysalis gets stuck to a branch or a leaf. We were allowed to bring two
chrysalises and a caterpillar back to Tui 1 with us.
We learned that when a caterpillar
is born it has to eat lots. We saw two baby caterpillars. We also saw a
caterpillar trying to eat a stalk.
We learned the cycle of a
caterpillar turning into a butterfly. We learned to tell a male
butterfly from a female butterfly. We also learned that pray mantises
and paper wasps eat caterpillars.
Written by Jess, Maddi, and Hannah.
Some of the butterflies' and caterpillars'
predators are praying mantises. First the praying mantis hunts its
prey, then it makes sure it doesn’t escape. Then it attacks it and then
it eats it. Another predator of the caterpillars and butterflies are
the paper Wasps. The wasps hunts the caterpillars down then it stings it to kill it and then it eats it.
Latrey
Caterpillars
are black, white and yellow and they can die easily. They turn into a
chrysalis and then they turn into a butterfly.Then they lay eggs and
then fly to a better place.Then they lay more. The monarch butterfly
lays about 300 - 400 eggs in maximum*.The caterpillars eat lots and lots of
leaves and then when they get older they turn into a chrysalis. Lots of
people get mixed up with a male butterfly and a female butterfly. It is
easy to tell because the male butterfly has dark spots on its back but
the female butterfly doesn’t have these dark spots.The male butterfly does
not lay eggs.
* to be researched further.
Jackie
Firstly
the monarch butterfly starts out as a 1.2 mm size egg that another
butterfly lays. After three or four days the egg hatches into a tiny
little caterpillar. Once the caterpillar has been eating swan plant
leaves for a week or so it is ready to turn into a chrysalis. First the
caterpillar turns like an upside down spiral, then a green shade covers
it up then it turns into a chrysalis, then it turns into a beautiful
butterfly.
By Trent and Cameron
Things we have discovered this week:
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| This is the egg case (ootheca) of a South African praying mantis. |
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| These are not the ootheca of South African (or any) praying mantises. They are, in fact, used bubble gum left on a post in our garden. Yuck! But, from a distance, it had us fooled for a while. We now know the difference. |
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| Some caterpillars will die of disease. |
Other recent visitors to our garden:
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| The bees are enjoying our garden |
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| Aphids and ants on our busy Lizzy plants. Lady birds won't be too far away. |
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| Another caterpillar to identify. |
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| Can you see a green caterpillar on the swan plant? It's a cabbage butterfly caterpillar, after Mrs Hansen's class's newly planted cabbage plants, no doubt. We have seen a few white butterflies around the place. |
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| We need to identify what kind of caterpillar this is. A student from another class found it and brought it to show us. |
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| Can you find the fly on the leaf? |
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