Lifecycles of Butterflies
Lesson 10
Feeding the Butterflies
In this lesson children will be involved in the EXPLORE and REFLECT phases of the Learning Cycle. Children will be fascinated to watch the butterfly use its proboscis to feed.
3. Lesson set up and Management
Know that most living things need a place to live -Observe and show how organisms live in specific places and describe how animals depend on plants or animals for food. (Systems -1.3.8)
Caterpillars and butterflies eat differently.
3. Lesson set up and Management
Materials:
It is sometimes hard to see the curled proboscis unless students know what to look for. A transparency of Figure 10-1, the butterfly's head in the Teacher's Guide, may help focus their observation.
Mix the sugar water by adding one teaspoon of sugar with about one half cup of water. It is a good idea to mix-up extra quantities of the sugar water solution to save the time of making it each day. Store the extra in a container to replenish sponges as needed.
Activity Sheet 9, Butterflies Need Food is available and will need to be run if used.
Procedure:
Students and teachers discuss ways people and other animals eat. Also, discuss how the caterpillar eats its food, the leaves. Students will discuss how they think the butterfly will eat the sugar water and then observe this when the sugar water is placed in the flight cages. The connection should be made that in nature the butterfly would get its food as nectar from flowers. Students will write and draw about the butterfly getting food either in the science notebook or on the Activity Sheet.
Butterflies eat from sponge soaked in sugar water.
If the sponges are new, rinse them out well to remove any manufacturing residue before saturating them in the sugar water solution.
Don't fill the dish with sponge/sugar water too full as butterflies can drown.
Using the straw at lunchtime to drink their lunch milk and simply talking about the similarity between the straw and proboscis gives many kids that "aha" about how the proboscis works. They also think it is fun to use a "proboscis" to drink.
Background Information: Students will have a chance to see the butterfly use its proboscis to eat from a sponge soaked in sugar water. The proboscis is coiled near the butterfly's head and the butterfly straightens it to reach into the sponge or sugar water or into a flower to suck up the nectar. Some more natural foods to try in addition to sugar water are fresh flowers, apple or pear pieces, and even honey water.
Writing Support:
No writing support for this lesson.
Reading Support:
While Activity Sheets are available for every lesson in the unit, consider giving students writing prompts to respond to in the science notebook instead. An example of a prompt might be "If our butterflies were outside, where would they get their food and how would they eat it?"