Kindergarten

Metamorphosis

The K5 groups followed the Monarch Butterflies' metamorphosis, as part of a project named “Our Campus, our Ecosystem”. We researched the native animal species and plants we have here. We received a visit from Y6 students who had investigated on native plants and taught us many important facts! Therefore, we discovered that all organisms in our ecosystem depend upon each other, and butterflies play a special role as pollinators. Within this project, we walked to the field and the ponds on animal scavenger hunts where we found many butterflies, bees, ants, roly-polies, frogs, bumblebees, different types of birds such as lapwings, owls, and coots, and some of us were even lucky enough to see a vole that quickly hid away!

We continued our project by investigating the habits and life cycle of butterflies, then researched in books, encyclopaedias, and infographics. With that information, we knew which native plants attract butterflies, and planted them in our playground. Besides, we got Milkweed (host plant of the Monarch butterfly) in pots, to be able to get them indoors when necessary.

We used to watch the growth of the native plants when we went to the playground, and we put the milkweed pots near the artichoke plantation so we watered those almost every day to see if the butterflies had laid their eggs. We chose that special place because Sergio told us he had seen some butterflies over there. Sergio is an agricultural engineer, and was our great ally during this project! He taught us how to take care of our plants and vegetable garden.

One day the children were very excited “We found eggs, we found eggs!” they said with great enthusiasm, but we realised they were tiny aphids… We had to wait a little bit more. Finally, one morning, we found many eggs on some plants and even some tiny caterpillars on another.

We carefully watched them grow, and were amazed by the ridiculous places they chose to make their cocoons: we had two on our art tub, and another one hanging from the curtains! One morning, one of the kids that used to check on the plant as soon as he got in, found the butterfly had been born! Its wings were still wet, so we took it outside, to let it warm and dry them in the sun. We called Sergio and told him our great news! Later, the butterfly flew away.

Afterward, every time we saw a butterfly, children said that it was our butterfly!

It was an amazing project, we enjoyed it very much!