Early Years Beautiful Butterflies!

Inspired by the classic Eric Carle story, The Hungry Caterpillar, children in the Pre-School have been learning all about the lifecycle of a butterfly. 

Over the last half term, they have been raising their own butterflies and enjoying watching the miracle of metamorphosis. In their butterfly garden, kindly donated by Niamh’s family, they have watched caterpillars change into chrysalides and then emerge as beautiful Painted Lady butterflies.  

This week they fed the beautiful butterflies oranges and read stories to them. One of the stories told of course included the much loved ‘The Hungry Caterpillar.’ Their colourful wings inspired the children to create some chalk art. Rainbow coloured chalk butterflies now cover the path welcoming visitors to the Early Years classroom.  

‘Watching the caterpillars change into chrysalides and then emerge as butterflies is a fantastic opportunity for our children to learn about the natural world. They have literally seen the butterfly lifecycle taking place over just a few weeks,’ says Early Years Class Teacher Hannah Sutcliffe. ‘Actually, seeing each stage take place is amazing and it encourages the children to use lots of new descriptive language. It’s been lovely watching how much the girls have been inspired to care for the butterflies ensuring they have been and fed and entertained with stories!’