A lime green discovery was made on one of the coldest mornings of the school year. A caterpillar lay all alone on the wood chips – unmoving.
Thomas – I think he died.
Kaya – I think he’s frozen.
Ursula – I think he is tired.
Eva – I think he’s sleepy.
Kyla – He’s going to turn into a butterfly.
Were the children correct? Was he dead, tired, frozen or sleepy? We decided to take him into the studio to see if he would stir once he was in the warmth. Other children gathered around to comment on our new friend.
Tessa – He’s like a kiwi.
Sam – Like a porcupine.
Will – That caterpillar is straight. (He looks at our photograph of Luna moth from the Woodland Walk). But that thing in between the wings is also straight. Maybe this is Luna.
The next day the children observe the caterpillar again. It has now had 24 hours in the warmth of our studio. It looks different to the day before.
Ursula – What is it doing?
Kyla – What is it doing? Building a cocoon and then it will turn into a big butterfly.
What is a cocoon?
Kyla – A cocoon is a butterfly’s like a wasp’s nest but it’s not really a cocoon. It’s not a home, it’s just a nest.
Will – It looks different (than yesterday.) Before it wasn’t flat.
Kyla – It can’t be Luna because it doesn’t have wings.
Will – He’s making his cocoon. He’s going in circles. See that brown thing? Yup – that’s the head. He’s moving now.
Tessa – He has blankets in there. Look he’s moving. I think he was just going for a nap.
With the help of the internet we discover our caterpillar is going to form into a Giant Silk Polyphemus Moth. It can spin cocoons hanging from tree branches as well as on the ground (where we found him.) It will spend the winter in its cocoon. As a moth its wingspan can be as large as 15cm.
