Lifecycles of Butterflies
Lesson 1
Getting Ready for Caterpillars
Students share prior knowledge of caterpillars and as a pre-assessment exercise, draw what they think a caterpillar looks like and how it changes.
3. Lesson set up and Management
Understand characteristics of living organisms- Identify observable characteristics of living organisms (e.g., spiders have eight legs, birds have feathers, plants have roots, stems, leaves, seeds, flowers.) (Systems 1 - 1.1.6)
Students express current concepts they have about caterpillars and butterflies. No new concepts are developed in this lesson.
3. Lesson set up and Management
Materials:
Materials and Preparation: Use the Activity Sheets in the teacher's guide or simply us white drawing paper. The teacher will want chart paper or a transparency to record student responses during discussion.
Student Management:
The teacher conducts a brainstorming session with the class to find out what they know about caterpillars. Responses are recorded on a chart entitled "What we know about caterpillars." Accept all responses without judgement and try to encourage students to connect their ideas to the ideas of others. Then the teacher leads a discussion and records responses on a chart entitled "What we would like to learn about caterpillars." These charts are valuable in providing pre-unit assessment information and useful for comparison in post-unit assessment.
 |
 |
Students are then asked to draw a picture of what they think a caterpillar looks like and show in drawings how a caterpillar changes during its life. It is not vital that drawings be accurate at this stage. They will serve as a before and after unit comparison for assessment purposes.
The caterpillar drawing is an important pre-assessment tool. It is a good idea to save this drawing and mount it side by side with their post-assessment drawing for comparison and to illustrate to students how much they've learned. If done in a science notebook, a space can be left on the bottom half of the page to draw the post-assessment picture.
Life Cycles of Butterflies revolves around the life cycle of the Painted Lady Butterfly (Vanessa cardui). This life cycle is representative of other life cycles found in nature. This butterfly is commonly found throughout North America, making it a good candidate for study. Its common plant foods include mallow, thistle, plantain, and dandelion.
During the course of this unit, students will have the opportunity to observe complete metamorphosis consisting of four stages: the egg, the caterpillar or larva, the chrysalis or pupa stage, and butterfly or adult stage.
Writing Support:
The Teacher's Guide offers a bibliography of many excellent trade books about caterpillars. These can be read throughout the unit to reinforce student learning as they move through the inquiry process.
Reading Support:
No reading support for this lesson.