Our Pre School children at Happy Days, Exeter, have been observing life cycles in action by introducing butterfly farms back in March. The children (and adults) have been able to watch the changes over time from starting off as caterpillars, forming their chrysalises and then transforming into butterflies!
It has been fantastic to see how this has supported the Inquisitive and Ambitious Thinker aspect of our Happy Days Curriculum; enhancing their knowledge of the natural world whilst also supporting them to be strong and confident communicators, learning new vocabulary such as chrysalis!
Throughout the past few weeks, the children have taken part in making predictions of what changes they might observe; sharing their ideas and listening to their peers. They counted how many caterpillars, chrysalis and butterflies there were and checked against their predictions.
To extend all the wonderful learning we have been doing about the life cycle of butterflies, the children enjoyed a ‘Let’s Cook’ activity. We enjoyed using chopping boards and knives to cut all the different fruits, vegetables and salami from the very Hungry Caterpillar story. We particularly enjoyed tasting all the different foods!
Yesterday the children had the opportunity to display their care and concern when holding a butterfly, linking to the objective of week 3 of our Positive Transition to School Programme. We then let them fly out into the garden to continue their life in the natural world.
