watch a buttterfly come out of it's chrysilis

We had them attached to the low wall next to our classroom. And we would check them every day. Our teacher let us sit and watch then come out when it was time. It was so cool.I think it was the 6 th grade, She was pregnant that year and she showed us her belly button had popped inside out like a butterball turkey. It was a good year. oh first kiss too.

In elementary school we raised butterflies as part of our science class and released them out on the playground. I still can’t believe my caterpillar actually lived to become a butterfly, I couldn’t keep a goldfish alive back then. But anyway, it’s been a while, but I have done this, and it was fun.

I grew fennel several years in Tennessee-black swallowtails love it. Their chrysalides are gorgeous-dotted with gold. Life!

I did this with my kindegarten class that I used to teach. It was amazing watching that butterfly emerge and when we took it outside to release it, each child was so proud and smiling. We opened the little tank and the butterfly flapped its wings and started to take off—the kids clapped, and in one blink of an eye, a robin swooped down and gobbled him up.

Try explaining the circle of life to 18 5 and 6 year olds who are crying their little eyes out.

As a child, I found an article about “raising” butterflies. I was a curious energetic child and took on projects like I took in air. My Dad encouraged me and built me a “breeding box” like the one in the article—a wooden box about 14” square with a hinged lid that had a screened opening in it about 10” square. Every summer for years I biked out of our little town, gathered milkweed and beautiful striped monarch caterpillars ,and brought them home to the breeding box. Once, while at my grandmother’s a 45-minute car ride from home, I took a paper grocery bag and collected caterpillars all afternoon, over a hundred of them with as much milkweed as the bag would hold. My mother let me carry that bag home in the car. I left it on the porch and replenished the milkweed a couple of times, and soon our entire front porch ceiling was hung with beautiful little green-and-gold lanterns. In 4th grade, hatching Monarchs was a school tradition. A lonely and insecure child, I was thrilled beyond belief when Mrs. Rowlands said, “Janna, you hold the butterfly for the picture, since you are experienced.” I have a copy of that newspaper image somewhere, me at the center with a butterfly clinging to my fingers and my classmates gathered around in wonder.

Years and years passed; I moved to another town, dirtier and bigger; I had kids and was busy. Then one summer my kids and I were walking at a park dedicated to the preservation of a riparian area, and as we came around a corner I saw milkweed, a huge patch of it, with telltale nibbles on the edges of the leaves.

Despite all my efforts as a child, I never found an egg, never saw a caterpillar shed its skin to reveal a chrysalis, and never saw a butterfly emerge—but that summer my kids and I saw all three.

It was awesome.

If you haven’t hit the link above already, do. And click on each life-cycle picture for more. Monarchs are so beautiful in every stage, and their chrysalis is incomparable. I don’t think there’s anything more beautiful in the entire natural world.

What a way to experience the AWESOMENESS OF GOD and NATURE!!! I highly recommend being with your child for this one to get the full experience…they see things so differently from adults and will make sure you don’t overlook a thing!

I did this by accident really. We went to the butterfly exhibit at the Museum of Natural History and they had a little case with chrysalises in it and while we were walking past one started to wiggle and split open. We watched as the butterfly inflated its wings. It was very, very cool!