Lifecycles of Butterflies
Lesson 11
The Butterfly's Body
Students will observe the butterflies that emerge from chrysalises and identify the body parts that make them insects.
3. Lesson set up and Management
Know that living things are made of small parts -observe and identify the parts of an object seen under a magnifier-illustrate or draw the small parts that make up the whole living thing (Systems -1.2.6)
Butterflies have three distinct body parts.
3. Lesson set up and Management
Materials:
A transparency of Appendix F Page 121 (Figure 11-1 in the Teacher's Guide, 2002 Version) is helpful for children to see the body parts from a side and top angle. Sometimes it is hard to spot the body parts on a fluttering butterfly.
Activity Sheet 10, My Butterfly and Me may need to be duplicated for student use.
Procedure:
Students observe the adult butterflies. After observation class participates in discussion about the various body parts with the aid of a transparency or diagram detailing those parts. Students complete Activity Sheet 10 or make an entry in the science notebook comparing human body parts to the butterfly and writing about what the butterfly uses its body parts for.
Students will observe butterflies mating. It is best to just deal with it as a scientific issue. Children are generally satisfied if you say that when the ends of the abdomens join, that's how the butterflies mate.
Any butterflies that die should be examined with hand lenses or with a microscope to see the body parts in more detail. It is interesting to see the hairs on the body, scales on wings, barbs on legs, proboscis and eye up close.
Background Information: In this section the vocabulary terms head, thorax, and abdomen will be used. The head has a pair of antennae with which the butterfly feels and smells. This is where the compound eyes, which see color, and the proboscis are found. The thorax, or midsection, holds the two pairs of wings and six pairs of jointed legs. The abdomen is the third body section. In the female the abdomen is more rounded. While many vocabulary terms are just to inform, these terms are ones the children can learn and identify on the insect.
Writing Support:
Activity Sheet 10 can be done as is and attached in science notebooks. If students are accustomed to writing they could be given a prompt to write in the science notebook: "How are you and your butterfly alike and different? Think of legs, eyes, wings, arms, antennae and how you each get food."
Reading Support:
No reading support for this lesson.