swanplant

Monday 8 February 2010 Yahoo, the last of our beautiful family of butterflies has arrived safely. It is very active and is flying around our classroom. It hangs in funny places like our picture wires.

Wednesday 31 February 2010 Silent reading time was amazing today. Alex managed to read on despite a special visit. Sam had a special visitor. Billy's visitor stayed so Billy got to walk outside and let our latest butterfly fly to freedom. It stayed in the flower garden all day.

Tuesday 30 February 2010 The butterflies are beautiful. But the time has come to release them. We were delighted to see that they stayed around and landed on the flowers in the garden and the trees and on the school roof.

Monday 29 February 2010 Four beautiful butterflies flying around, resting on the blinds. So beautiful. Finally we found the missing butterfly on the floor beside the bookshelf. They are very hot and need food. One came down to rest so we released it.

Sunday night 28 February 2010 I have yet another mystery with the swanplants. Tonight I went back into school and we have 3 beautiful butterflies, 2 boys and a girl. But, we have 4 empty chrysalises so one of the butterflies has flown away somewhere around the class. We will have to be very careful in the morning in case it is on the ground. I have put out a dish of sugar water for the butterflies to feed on until they can be released. It would be great if anyone could bring in flowers tomorrow for them to land on and feed from. I have the most amazing recording of one of the butterflies emerging from the chrysalis for you to watch tomorrow. It really is amazing!!!!

Sunday 28 February 2010 After Church today I called into school and what a surprise I got. We have two beautiful butterflies. They are perfect. One had just emerged from the chrysalis and was still pumping blood into its wings. The other one has been out for longer. These photos will give you a glimpse of the beauties you will see tomorrow.

media type="custom" key="5463747" Wednesday 24 February 2010 Today the chrysalises are just the same today. Very smoky all around today with the fire at Mt Allan burning away. I have made a world of monarch photos which I thought you might like to look at.

Tuesday 23 February 2010 Today Thomas bought in a cross he had made to mark the grave site of teenytiny. We are noticing that we can see the wing patterns through the first chrysalis. We wander how long it will be until we have a butterfly.

Monday 22 February 2010 Great sadness today. We arrived at school and both tiny and teeny tiny are missing. We have searched everywhere. Finally Mrs K found tiny - in a chrysalis up on the roof of the classroom - right under number 40 on our number line. Just before the bell rang Lewis bought us in teeny tiny - unfortunately dead - they had found him on the floor by the room 5 prayer table. Poor teeny tiny must have been exhausted on his tiny little feet to walk all the way to room 5. We placed teeny tiny in the little coffin and had a funeral for him/her at the end of the day.

Thursday 18 February 2010 We have five chrysalises and 2 very hungry munching caterpillars. Today we noticed that the little bugs on the swan plant and growing. We had to very carefully cut the top off the branch without disturbing the chrysalises. We threw the bugs out.

Wednesday 17 February 2010 Kaelen's Magical Rescue!!!!! At 10.30 today I was on the phone to the computer technician. Kaelen and a group of room 4 boys told me they needed me. I told them to find the duty teacher. I told them to go outside but they kept telling me they needed me. I really should have listened straight away. Would you believe that on Kaelen's back was Teeny Tiny???? How did it get there? Why was it not squashed. Kaelen sits on the other side of the room from the swan plant. How did Teeny Tiny walk so far? I guess we will never know what adventures Teeny Tiny got up to in the two days he or she was missing. I sure do know that he or she was very hungry and hasn't stopped eating. Thank you Kaelen for the very safe return of Teeny Tiny. I had to put a leaf of Kaelen's back and wait for Teeny Tiny to climb onto it then place the leaf in the swan plant and set him or her free.

Tuesday 16 February 2010 The video footage was great until the cleaner turned off the light and we just recorded darkness. The sneaky caterpillars both waited until it was dark to change. Teeny tiny is still missing. We have searched and searched the plants.

Monday 15 February 2010 Today when we got to school there were 3 chrysalises and one more caterpillar is in a J. We REALLY want to watch it shed its skin and go into its chrysalis so we have set the visualiser on record for the time we are at swimming. We kept setting it on record all day but it still wasn't in a chrysalis. Another caterpillar is in a J now too. I set the visualiser to record over night so hopefully we will get to see it in the morning. Teeny tiny is missing. We have searched and searched and we cannot find him or her.

Sunday 14 February 2010 What a surprise I got this morning when I went in to wish the caterpillars Happy Valentine's Day! Check out the photos and look at all the changes!

Saturday 13 February 2010 The caterpillars are loving the new food although two of them had managed to get back onto the plants without any leaves. I managed to encourage them to move back across. One of the caterpillars is already in a J so I think we will have a chrysalis by Monday. I searched on the internet and discovered that the caterpillars always eat the skin as soon as they shed it. I can't really imagine eating your own skin>>>>????>>>>????

Friday 12 February 2010 The poor little caterpillars are almost right out of food. Judith bought in 5 baby swan plants this morning but they have gobbled most of them already. They are desperately looking for new food. The keep crawling off the plants and one has even crawled up the smartboard. I need to buy them more food. Off I went to Mosgiel Garden place and bought two more plants. 40 long minutes later they are all safely onto the new plants and they should be happy for the weekend.

Thursday 11 February 2010 Very sad to watch the caterpillars tonight. They have completely eaten one plant and they keep going up and down it looking for leaves. They are very frustrated and three of them have been fighting. They are whacking each other with their antennae and their heads. I hope they will be okay in the morning. I have new plants on the way for tomorrow.

Wednesday 10 February 2010 Two of the caterpillars travelled over to the new plant overnight and there is a feeding frenzy going on. I cannot believe how much they are eating.

Tuesday 9 February 2010 I can hardly believe it... after school today I watched another caterpillar shed and eat its skin. I managed to get a photo of it. Maybe tomorrow we will all get to see this happen.

Monday 8 February 2010 Today I brought in another swan plant for our caterpillars. They are ferociously devouring the leaves. When I was watching the caterpillars after school I saw one of the caterpillars shed its skin. I could not believe that it then ate its own skin. Tonight I have put the two plants together so the caterpillars can move between the plants and eat the new leaves. I wonder what we will find in the morning.

Sunday 7 February 2010 Today I came in to school to check on the caterpillars and found that we now have 10. I have cut off two small branches to take two caterpillars and an egg to a lady at Brooklands who has a large swan plant. She will let us know how they go. I know that we are going to have a Monarch Emergency. We will not have enough plant for the caterpillars.

Friday 5 February 2010

This a present for Room 4 for the start of 2010 This swan plant has 6 caterpillars and one of them is five days old and one of them is only two days old.

It was very hard to name the caterpillars because we all had to think of names and vote for our favourites. It was fun naming them. We all had really great ideas. Later today we are going to look at the caterpillars using the digitaliser and we will take some more photos. This is going to be a lot of fun.

When we came back in after morning tea Chelsea had noticed that we have another teeny tiny caterpillar.