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Caterpillar Week

April 17 – April 21

As we move into spring we will be watching for new life in our play area. Plants will be popping up, birds will be back and the insects will be everywhere! The children are fascinated by all the changes in the garden – at school, in your yard and in the neighborhood. Be sure to take some time to go on “nature explore” walks this month.

We will be reading the Hungry Caterpillar and discussing how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. The rhymes and stories will say “cocoon” but it is actually a “chrysalis”.

How does a caterpillar turn into a butterfly?

The major difference between a chrysalis and a cocoon is that a chrysalis is the hardened body of a butterfly pupa, whereas a cocoon is an external structure constructed by larvae to protect themselves during the pupal stage. While there are many different types of insects that create cocoons, they are largely associated with moths. Butterfly caterpillars, with very few exceptions, do not build cocoons, but instead harden into chrysalides during their pupal stage. Butterfly larvae form chrysalides during their final transformation stage, while moth larvae build cocoons.
Even though our rhymes and story will say cocoon it is usually a moth that forms one not a butterfly. However, not all moths form cocoons, either! Some moth species pupate underground instead. These caterpillars burrow into the soil or leaf litter, molt to form their pupa, and remain underground until the moth emerges. The newly emerged moth will then crawl out from underground, crawl up onto a surface from which they can hang, and will then expand their wings in preparation for flight.

Fuzzy Caterpillar

A fuzzy little caterpillar
made a cocoon one day
Turned into a butterfly
and flew away

Bugs

Big bugs, small bugs, big bugs, small bugs,
See them crawl on the wall?
Creepy, creepy, crawling, never, never falling.
Bug, bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs.

Bug in a rug

Bug in a rug
Which one of you bugs
Is snug in my rug?