Click on the link below to watch a short film about the Easter story and then give the activities a try.
Fascinating Facts!
Did you know that the caterpillars will stay in the cup and will eat, spin silk and grow to TEN times their original size? WOW!!
After seven to ten days you can see they hang upside down and harden into chrysalides (chrysalides are also known as pupae).
Raising and Rescuing Our Own Butterflies
This week, the pupils of parents who are key workers have been observing what’s happening in the clear plastic cup.
Sadly, one of the caterpillars would not make a chrysalis and knocked the other chrysalides off the top of the lid! This initiated our team to come up with a rescue plan.
Our team were very keen to help and moved quickly into our computer suite to research how to save fallen chrysalides! We found written and pictorial instructions how to re-hang a chrysalis and followed them carefully. The operation was in full flow!
Thank you to everyone in our team – from the researchers to the rescuers. A particular thank you to Grace Wheeler who helped me re-hang three chrysalides by gluing the cremasters onto small pieces of paper towel and then attach them to the sides of the netted butterfly garden. It wasn’t easy – there were a few attempts but we preserved and succeeded!
What happened to the caterpillar that wouldn’t make a chrysalis?
We decided to leave it in the cup (with food) for a while to see if it would climb the the top, make a ‘j’ shape and build a shell. It wouldn’t! After a long discussion about Darwin’s theory, we decided to set it free and hope for the best! A difficult decision as we knew the temperature outside was less than 21 degrees!
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Watch these informative videos showing the caterpillar to butterfly process for far.
Setting up you Chrysalis Station: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Prw99oojY0
Caring for your Chrysalis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcwOzy72vcM
Look what is happening now. After making a ‘j’ shape, the caterpillars make a chrysalis. Can you research to find out what’s happening inside this silky case? There’s LOTS going on but we can’t see inside!
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- What is the same?
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- What is different?
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- Have a close look……….
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- Keep looking!
Here are some interactive games you may wish to play:
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/scienceforkids/life_cycle/butterfly_lifecycle.htm
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=life%20cycle%20of%20a%20butterfly
https://www.softschools.com/science/butterfly/life_cycle.jsp
In Year Two, this term, we have been learning about the life cycle of a frog and butterfly. We’ve also read for pleasure lots of other non-fiction books about life cycles of different living things. We recently read a lovely fictional story called ‘Tadpole’s Promise’ by Jeanne Willis. You can watch a story teller on YouTube.
In our year two classrooms we set up a live butterfly garden! Wow!! We had to read the instructions to understand fully how to care for the caterpillars properly. Having already learned how to read scales, in maths, we checked the temperature – daily because 21 degrees is the best temperature for the caterpillars to grow healthy. Did you know that? We do. This was and is an unforgettable opportunity for us to watch caterpillars change into chrysalides and then emerge as beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies.
We were actually raising and feeding our very own butterflies and then releasing them into the wild! Amazing! The entire transformation from caterpillar to adult butterfly takes about three to five weeks.
Unfortunately, due to the present situation and school opening only for pupils who parents are key workers, year two pupils can’t see these changes in the classroom but don’t worry, we’ll post photos of this amazing transformation, so keep watching! You may wish to write a diary of the daily changes and illustrate them. Can you spot what’s the same and what’s different? Look carefully! Please enjoy researching to find out more before the next posting.
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- Young Caterpillars
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- Eating Machines!
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- Just the right temperature!
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- Growing and growing!
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- What’s the temperature?
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- Now the caterpillars are making a ‘j’ shape. Why?
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- What’s happening?
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- What are the caterpillars doing?
Adam Bushnall will be posting a live story on YouTube every day next week. This will be aimed at primary school children all over the world who are either at school or being homeschooled. It will be live at 2:30pm each day but you can watch it whenever, once it’s uploaded, on my YouTube channel.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Md6jZmPdBn4
Real PE at home includes an online programme which supports families to be active, play and learn together. It includes a programme specifically for children in Early Years and Key Stage 1 with 12 themes, 6 areas, over 250 activities and challenges and 1000s of hours of fun and activity. This programme is also great for family play and fun.
It also includes a programme for children in Key Stage 2, with daily and weekly guidance provided for both programmes (starting from this week) in addition to an option to choose your own themes and activities.
There are so many benefits to being active, not only to our physical wellbeing but also to our emotional and mental health, especially in such testing times for all of us. We hope that the ideas help support you and your family to stay fit and healthy in the coming months. Here are the details to access real PE at home:
Web page – home.jasmineactive.com
Username – parent@millhillpr-1.com
Password – millhillpr
- Phonics play is a website we use in school to support the teaching of phonics and has many games to play. In year one we use the games in phases 3 – 5. Please see below for free access:
- At 9am Monday-Friday Joe Wicks is Live on Youtube : The Body Coach
TV.
Get up and out of bed, get yourself woken up and enjoy a PE lesson in your living
room! We will be joining in from our homes too!
https://www.youtube.com/user/thebodycoach1
- At 9:30am Shonette Bason will be going to the Dough Disco live on
Youtube: Spread the Happiness TV!
You need some play-dough for this, how about making some at home yourself;
there are some great recipes online with ingredients you may have already!
- Nrich Maths Activities
- Year One – Count, read and write numbers to 100 in numerals; count in multiples of twos, fives and tens
- Writing Digits
- Identify and represent numbers using objects and pictorial representations including the number line, and use the language of: equal to, more than, less than (fewer), most, least
- Making Sticks
- Purple Mash – Your login details are inside the front page of your reading
records. Login and see what ‘ToDo’s’ we have set for you to enjoy! You can
even write us a message when you finish your work. Have fun!
English
- At home with your family, make a jar of ‘Things I can’t wait to do’ when we can all come out of our houses safely. On little pieces of paper write down anything you’d love to be able to do right now and put it into a box or a jar. Just imagine how many ideas you’ll build up over the next few weeks! This will give us something to look forward to!
Remember your capital letters, full stops and finger spaces! Try and spell the words independently if you can. We can’t wait to hear all of your ideas soon!
Today reception, year one and year two were introduced to the superheros from our new home reading scheme ‘Hero Academy’. Watch out for their SUPER reading skills!!!
