A jail for the caterpillars
“I need to build a jail for the caterpillars.”
An adult asked why.
“The caterpillars are so cute that kidnappers are going to take them, so I have to lock them up.”
“You're putting them in jail because they're cute?”
That got a laugh, and another child sorted it out.
“Don't do that — lock up the kidnappers instead.”
“So who are the kidnappers?”
They pointed at the wall, at the villain spider that was up there.
“Him.”
“Right then. Let's build a web and a jail to lock up whoever is bothering the caterpillars. How shall we make it?”
It had to have black in it, they said, and bars.
So a shelf was emptied out and black tape marked out the jail, and they started putting the villains in. One of them let a villain escape.
“Get that spider, it's escaping!”
“We need a guard for this jail.”
They wanted somewhere up on top of the shelf to watch from. Somebody had brought a tissue box in that morning, so holes went in it and it became a watchtower.
The villains kept getting out and running off, so they asked for webs on the classroom door too, and the bathroom, and the hallway. Ribbon tape went up in each one, and after that they spent their time not touching any of it.
“If you touch it you turn into a villain.”
3–5noticing other childrencommunicationpretend play
It isn't moving
When they had finished what they were doing, there were caterpillars around, and they stopped to look.
“A green one — it's huge! It's a caterpillar!”
Some of them wanted nothing to do with it and kept their distance.
At the end of it one child put a foot on one.
“That's mean. You mustn't.”
Then they stood looking at the caterpillar that was no longer moving, and were sad about it.
3–5noticing other childrencommunication
I'm a chrysalis
They were watching a film of how a butterfly grows.
“The caterpillar's wiggling.”
“Why doesn't the chrysalis move?”
“Is this the bit where it turns into a butterfly?”
They told each other what was happening.
“This one's a caterpillar.”
“It's going to be a butterfly now.”
One of them wanted to draw one.
“I'm going to draw a butterfly.”
“Me too!”
And then some of them got hold of a cloth and wrapped it around themselves.
“I'm a chrysalis.”
“Now I'm going to be a butterfly.”
3–5communicationpretend play
See you as a butterfly
The caterpillar they had been watching the week before was a chrysalis now.
They went out to look at it, and said they'd see it next week when it had grown into a butterfly.
3–5communicationcause and effect
What comes after the caterpillar?
There was a picture on the wall of how a butterfly grows, and two of them stopped in front of it.
“How does it get to be a butterfly from an egg?”
“What comes after the caterpillar?”
They went through it together — egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly — and then said they wanted to draw the picture themselves. Paper and pens came out, and they worked through the stages one at a time from memory, and showed each other what they'd got.
3–5communicationusing their hands
Getting it to move
They made caterpillars out of green paper.
Then came the question of how to make one move. What they landed on was the straws over in the art corner. They blew through one, and the caterpillar moved.
3–5using their handscause and effect
The ant walked straight past
“These are the ones you get on cakes.”
Cupcake liners, and a spoon to put leaves and dirt in them with.
Then one of them filled a liner with seed pods and held it up.
“Doesn't this look like a caterpillar?”
They put it down in front of an ant that was going by. The ant went straight past without eating any of it, so another child set their own cupcake down beside it.
3–5noticing other childrenpretend play
No caterpillars again, so we made one
They went out looking for caterpillars for the second week running and didn't find any, so they looked at them in books instead, and then made bodies for them out of cotton pads.
Felt pens on cotton pads didn't behave the way felt pens on paper do.
“This doesn't work as well as paper.”
Then water from a pipette went onto the marks they'd made, and the ink spread out.
“Whoa, the color's getting bigger.”
3–5using their handscause and effect
The rainbow caterpillar
A pipette, and little pressed-up towels that swell up in water. Squeezing the pipette over one made it grow, and that was the part they came back for.
Then felt pen on them, and water squeezed on top, or water with paint mixed in. What came out of that got called a rainbow caterpillar.
They gathered them all onto a round tray to watch them change, and got macarons and other snacks together to feed them with.
They wanted their caterpillar to have eyes. Stickers wouldn't stay on anything that wet.
Under 3using their handscause and effect
Saying hello to one outside
They had wanted a closer look at how a butterfly is put together, so a picture of one came out and they went over it together.
It has eyes, they said. And it looks disgusting.
Out in the yard afterward they said hello to one, and then wanted to know about the other bugs too.
3–5noticing other childrencommunication