Life Cycle of a Butterfly – Rescue Mission!

28th March 2020D Osmond

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!

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

Y2 – Life Cycle of a Beautiful Painted Lady Butterfly

28th March 2020D Osmond

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!

Here are some  interactive games you may wish to play:

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/scienceforkids/life_cycle/butterfly_lifecycle.htm

Butterfly Life Cycle – Science Game for Kids

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=life%20cycle%20of%20a%20butterfly

 

https://www.softschools.com/science/butterfly/life_cycle.jsp

 

 

Y2 – Life Cycles – The Never Ending Story…………

28th March 2020D Osmond

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.

Adam Bushnall live story telling.

27th March 2020C Allinson

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 P.E

27th March 2020C Allinson

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

 

 

Mill Hill’s Sponsored Mental Maths Marathon!

2nd June 2019D Osmond
Related image                                Image result for division sign                       Image result for multiplcation sign

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who supported our ‘Sponsored Mental Maths Marathon‘.   I can now proudly confirm that we raised a total of £1,550.55!   All proceeds will be spent on purchasing useful mental maths resources to support your child’s learning.  Once again, thank you for your continued support.

Kind Regards,

Mrs D.Osmond – Maths Lead

 

Super Stars Assembly

3rd May 2019D Osmond

Here’s our ‘Super Stars‘ who celebrated their achievements on Friday 3rd May 2019:

Well done everyone, you’re a CLASS act!

Mill Hill’s Sponsored Mental Maths Marathon!

3rd May 2019D Osmond

Thank you to all pupils for their FANTASTIC effort to learn their tables and division facts so well!  We had a great time playing multiplication and division games to ‘warm up’ before our challenge began. This whole school event certainly helped pupils at Mill Hill improve their recall.

Here are our ‘Times Table Super Stars’:  

A HUGE ‘thank you’ for the continued support of parents.  The total sum of our super sponsorship donations will follow shortly.

Kind Regards,

Mrs Osmond – Maths Lead