2.5 Casualties (On Raising Painted Lady Butterflies)

Many years ago, I thought about raising butterflies when I retire after visiting the butterfly garden in Quezon City, Philippines. Back then, it never occurred to me that I’d be involved in Montessori education and would be showing metamorphosis right in the classroom. This spring, management was anxious about ordering Painted Lady butterfly larvae kits from Butterfly Wings n’ Wishes in Edmonton, Alberta, but went ahead anyway. I was told that last year’s project failed as the caterpillars ate each other over the weekend. Being aware of survival of the fittest among our tiny friends, I thought that it wouldn’t be repeated. I just had to make sure that “the very hungry” caterpillars will have a lot to munch. 

When our kit arrived and their temporary home, a fish tank, was washed with vinegar, the children watched intently as I moved each of the 19 caterpillars into their individual cups using the paintbrush included in the kit. It was one of those Science times when they could focus and not make a sound. Each larva was then supplied with a bit of the artificial food that had to be refrigerated. The tank then provided the beginning of all the wonders the children would experience for weeks before leaving their Kindergarten classroom. As nature unfolded before their eyes each day, they watched in amazement and said, “Awesome!” 

After reading Eric Carle’s “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and making their own hungry caterpillar book, the children took note of how much the larvae had eaten and grown each day. But as the weekend was coming and our supply of artificial food was at low level, I thought that I should execute Plan B: to purchase natural foods such as hollyhocks. I frantically made calls to nearby gardens to inquire if they had a supply of hollyhocks and luckily, I was able to escape from the classroom and pick up two pots for two caterpillars (the largest and the smallest). I thought that at the rate they were eating and growing, one block of artificial food (the size of sugar cubes) in two days or one big hollyhock leaf in a day, all the big leaves in each pot would be gone in six days! I prayed therefore that they turned into pupae (chrysalises) soon. 

As the caterpillars hatched from their eggs at different times and were therefore of varying sizes, the large ones entered the pupa stage early. The children observed how silk was forming in the cups, they called “spider webs,” and waited for the time for each caterpillar to hang in a J shape from the cup’s lid or from the hollyhock, as in the case of the two caterpillars that were on the plants. As most of the larvae were turning into chrysalises, the children then marked the calendar and anticipated what they called “hatching” after 7 to 10 days. They were beaming with excitement as they talked about the possibility of this happening in their classroom. In the meantime, my Job #2 was to build houses for 19 butterflies as I didn’t want 28 children crowding over one house at a time. Frantically again, I drove from one Dollar Store to another to look for the right kind of nets. One net I got was a yellow laundry mesh bag which had very tiny holes and wouldn’t allow a clear view of the butterflies; the other was a green one for the garden. Coincidentally, my landlord chopped down three trees in the yard so I asked for some branches for my butterfly house. 

While the caterpillars were turning into chrysalises one by one, I built one house with the mesh bag by using round aluminum trays for the top and bottom frames and hanging it from the ceiling. 

The other took hours to build as I had to use the branches as poles and wrap the green net around it, not knowing that the holes were large enough for the butterflies to go through and create hide-and-seek episodes with the children later. Once the houses were done, the chrysalises were transferred. The children now had more room to move about and observe every day. Whenever a chrysalis fell, children would report it immediately for they knew that it was “a accident” and that it was time for my “magic glue” to do the job. The smallest caterpillar, and therefore the last to turn into a chrysalis, also fell and had to be glued back to a lid. I must have made a mistake though as no butterfly came out even after 20 days. I think I glued the wrong end! The following Monday, the children scampered and yelled, “They’ve hatched! They’ve hatched!" after they had checked the houses. True enough, there were several that had completed their metamorphosis. (By this time, the children could pronounce every syllable of the word.) This then brought me to Job #3: making artificial food or getting natural foods.

Artificial food was 4 parts water and 1 part sugar and red food colouring, which had to be refrigerated too. Paper towels were soaked in this mixture and placed in each house. As the butterflies landed on the wet towels, however, their feet turned red and the children started arguing whether it was blood or food colouring! Overripe fruits were also served when available. I made another trip to the garden to look for hollyhocks with blooms in order to serve natural food but in vain. The staff must have thought me nuts for thinking about blooming hollyhocks early in the spring! 

Over the following weeks, the children looked forward to coming to class each day and spending some time by the houses. They would check the temperature to see if it was warm enough (+20C) for the butterflies to be released. They would also report how many butterflies made it through the net holes and watched as I lifted them by clipping their wings with my forefinger and middle finger. They would chase the butterflies that usually settled by the glass windows and try to touch them. As the days got warmer, the children released batches of butterflies in the garden and watched them warm up their wings before finally flying high to cross the fence and enjoy the neighbour’s lush garden.

Although this project resulted in what I call 2.5 casualties (one butterfly was found dead in one house, another was poked by one child, and one chrysalis failed to get into the next stage), the children had more than three weeks of witnessing metamorphosis and two weeks of being in the midst of the beautiful Painted Lady butterflies. Now I’ve realized I didn’t have to wait for retirement to realize my dream of raising butterflies. It’ll be a dream come true every spring in my classroom. For the children, it was a rare experience they will probably remember every spring. I hope they continue to marvel at nature's wonders all the days of their lives. As Robert Fulghum says in his poem "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten": "Be aware of wonder." Jamison/16/06/2012