Well, I think I have had a few references to our new fish in the house. We have had Boaty (named by Kyle because he has a boat statue in his fish bowl) for a few weeks now and all is well. He seems happy (that is only assumed since he is not floating in the top of his bowl) and Gma and Gpa even brought a live plant today since they read the fish like to lay against something. I was actually getting ready to remove all the rocks and boat because they make it dirty and hard to clean. Now, Grandparents are even spoiling the family fish!! I have lost total control.
The other creatures came via mail last Wed in a box that said "Live Butterflies. Open Immediately." And, so we did. Kyle had been checking the box constantly, waiting on the UPS/Fed Ex truck and stalking each one we'd seen around town the entire week. The cup contained 5 larvae which were small and not moving. I feared the worst but the instructions said that they would move and grow in a day or two. I happened on a nature center the next day that had an exhibit stating they eat constantly for the first 7-10 days and grow 200 times ther size (or something like that) Well, ours did start moving and have gotten to be huge catepillars. They are still in the container they come in. They have spun a lot of silk to protect them and help them move and several are making their way to the top of the container where they are supposed to hang, form their chryssalis and then we move them to the Butterfly habitat (the birthday present Kyle got) They will be there, feeding on sugar water and then will emerge into butterflies in about another week after they are moved. It is all quite fascinating, actually. I hope they all survive their transformation and that when we set them free they don't have any crash and burn landings!
2 comments:
Melinda,
I did butterflies in my classroom several times and it was always a success! The kids loved watching them (and like you, I did too)! I hope that yours emerge successfully (at least most of them cause you might lose one).
A GREAT book to read along with this is Waiting for Wings by Lois Elhert. As Andy would say - ever the teacher! ;-)
We've done the butterfly habitat two other years...missed this year, oops. You'll have so much fun! One of my friends' kids didn't want to let the butterflies go so now they have 250 or so caterpillars (at last count). ha ha
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