Butterfly Unit Study Completed. YAY!

Wednesday 26th February 2014

When we filled out our exemption so we could home school. I asked Miss Personality about what things she would like to learn about, and she choose butterflies.

I also asked her what kinds of things she would like to learn about.

So we put together a list of things that she could learn about, to do with butterflies.

In the past when we had done unit studies, we had made posters to present what she had learned.

This time we I thought it would be better to turn it into a book. That way she can go back and read it when ever she wants, and it is easy to transport if she feels like sharing it with anyone, and the best part easy to store.

I was going to laminate it and put rings through the side, to make it into a book. But then decided buying a clear paged A4 book from the Warehouse Stationary would be a better option. They had a deal the other day, in there back to school sale, where they were selling a 20 page book for $1.47. Compared to buying laminating sheets, it worked out the best option financially.

We started off this unit study by buying 4 junior swan plants from The Warehouse for around $5 each, then re planted them into 1 large plant pot.. I bought a few, as when they get to caterpillars, they can eat all the leaves off a plant pretty quickly.

Then we put it outside and waited for the monarch butterfly to find it. Monarch butterflies only lay their eggs on swan plants. We went out daily and made observations on if there were any eggs, then if there were any caterpillars, how many caterpillars were there.

Miss Personality took photos using my iphone and made a visual recording of out findings.

We noticed that some caterpillars were disappearing, so to make sure we got to see the full transformation, I brought the plants inside to protect 3 caterpillars. Through our studies we discovered where the caterpillars had been disappearing too.

We watched them go from this.........................................

To this.......................................................

To this....................................................................

To this :)

While observing all the changes that were happening to our caterpillar, we started to research on the internet for the answers to our questions.

First we looked into the life cycle of the swan plant itself. What are the different stages of growth, how does it grow and what are the different parts of the plant called.

Miss Personality cut out and pasted these pictures that we found on google images, in the order that they happen.

Miss Personality is not a huge fan of writing, so when we did this part we used a word document to put together her questions and answers that she had researched on the internet.

Then Miss Personality drew and labeled the parts of the swan plant.

Miss Personality and I brain stormed all the words associated with swan plants, butterflies and caterpillars. Then she created this word find with some of the words.

Then we moved on to answering some questions that we had put together about what we wanted to learn about caterpillars and butterflies. Miss Personality researched the answers by reading different websites on the internet. Again this document was created using word, and she typed out both questions and answers.

Then I used a bunch of photos off google images, of every stage of the butterfly life cycle. After researching what each stage is and when it happens in the cycle. I got Miss Personality to cut out the pictures and then put them in the correct order of events.

Miss Personality likes doing art work of all different types.

I found a picture on google images, and asked her to paint a picture of it.

She did such an awesome job. I then got her to look for a labeled diagram of a monarch butterfly, so she could correctly label her painting.

Today I got Miss Personality to do a acrostic poem about the butterfly, using words that we had brain stormed about for a previous activity.

I had also asked her if she could paint a picture of a caterpillar. This time I used one of the pictures we had taken of caterpillars as they had been changing, as an example. She did a fantastic job with this painting also. I got her to look for a labeled diagram of a caterpillar, so she could label her picture as well.

As a part of the unit study, for Miss Personalities birthday,we visited a place called Butterfly Creek. One of the main attractions was their butterfly garden, where we got to see lots of different butterflies, as well as have some land on us. It is a great place to visit with children and would recommend it to others.

There is a black butterfly on top of Miss Personality's hat. Had to be careful as you left, to make sure there were non attached to you as you left the area.

Miss Personality was starting to lose interest in this unit study, so we decided to stop there. 

There was still plenty more we could have added, but I think we both learnt so much about butterflies and had lots of fun with it all too.