Raising Butterflies – Day 10

We’ve only had our caterpillars for 10 days and already they’ve doubled, tripled and quadrupled in size! Masha’Allah!

When we first collected the caterpillars we were putting loose leaves from the comfrey plant into the tank for them to feed on, but they didn’t last much more than a day before wilting. So I decided instead to uproot one of the comfrey plants from the garden and pot it before putting it into the tank for the caterpillars.

They seemed quite impressed and in less than a week they had literally decimated it!  And as they stuffed themselves we found many remains of molted skins all over the tank.

 

Molted skin on a twig

Here is a picture of a leaf that one caterpillar munched through in less than 20 minutes.

It was quite amazing to watch them munching away and see the leaf slowly disappearing. And as a result of all this munching, there was also alot of pooing! It never even came to mind that caterpillars poo, but I guess like all creatures: what goes in must come out.

We started to notice a lot of very tiny pellets at the bottom of the tank and at first we wondered if they were eggs, but it soon became apparent, after witnessing a caterpillar in action, that these were caterpillar droppings. And as the caterpillars grow, their droppings get extremely large. In fact this caterpillar pellet is bigger than the caterpillar’s head!

Anyway, today I decided to get rid of the shrivelled up comfrey plant and replace it with a new one. I had to remove it leaf by leaf, separating the caterpillars and putting them into a plastic tuppaware box so that I could clean out the tank and put in the new pot of comfrey without squashing the little things.

We really got a close look and saw the difference in sizes, and we had an official count up and found we had 15 caterpillars altogether, so I’m guessing a few more sneaked in on the uprooted comfrey plant.

Our largest caterpillar, fondly referred to by the kids as ‘The Abi’ is now 4 cms long and more than 5mm wide. All of the caterpillars are now settled back into the tank to munch their way through another comfrey plant. I am going to look for some suitable branches in the next few days ready for when the first caterpillars decide to start making their cocoons insha’Allah.

'The Abi' close up

We got some fantastic close up shots and managed to do a more detailed anatomy diagram.

We are looking into how long it takes before our caterpillars enter the pupa stage and how long the pupa stage lasts.

More to come soon, insha’Allah

Raising Butterflies – Life Cycles

My daughter Samira recently completed her Butterfly Lapbook and was so keen to see the butterfly life cycle first hand. I promised that as soon as Spring comes we would try to collect some caterpillars for a project on Raising Butterflies.

Every year we always find lots of caterpillars in our garden around March time, so today I decided to go and collect the fish tank from the bottom of the garden to clean it up before we go on a caterpillar hunt. The tank had been sitting out since last summer and was covered in baby snails, so we collected a few baby snails to add to the tank too. We also spotted quite a few ladybirds which my 3 year old Basma also wanted to add to the tank! I have no idea about the ladybird life cycle but after reading this wonderful project about Raising Lady Bugs on Umm Abdul Basir’s blog I think it’s something we would love to try in the future insha’Allah

Our baby snails are smaller than a fingernail at the moment, masha'Allah!

Close up - this snails shell is only about 4-5mm tall

Once the tank was clean, the kids and I went out into the garden to where we usually spot the caterpillars. Straight away we found plenty of leaves with holes in them and a closer look revealed around 20 caterpillars perched on the leaves of a comfrey plant.

I cut off a few stems of the plant along with the leaves that we found the caterpillars on and put them into the tank. We collected around 12 caterpillars altogether.

We added in some small twigs for the caterpillars to crawl along.

Some of the caterpillars are slightly larger that the others. And we hope to have the opportunity to witness close up the caterpillars molting their skin.

Smallest Caterpillar 17mm long, 3mm wide / Largest Caterpillar 20mm long, 4mm wide

After the caterpillars were settled into their new home we went online to identify our caterpillars and find out what they will turn into. It was then that we found out, we aren’t actually raising butterflies, we are raising MOTHS.

We visited a website called UK Safari, where we was able to identify our caterpillars through the photo gallery. Our caterpillars will, insha’Allah, turn into the Scarlet Tiger Moth.

The Scarlet Tiger Moth is not like the common, duller moths that come out at night time. It is a brightly coloured,  day time moth.

Caterpillar stretching up and looking around

While we wait for our caterpillars to develop we are looking back and reminding ourselves of some caterpillar and butterfly facts, and learning a little more about the differences and similarities between butterflies and moths.

We managed to get a close up photo of one of the caterpillars as it crawled up the side of the tank. Samira identified and labelled the main body parts including the true legs and false legs. Most caterpillars have 16 legs: 3 pairs of true legs (characteristic of all insects)  close to the head end of the caterpillar and 5 pairs of false legs that support the rest of its body.

Insha’Allah we will be keeping a week by week photo and video diary of our caterpillars. Join us as we witness the marvels of Allah’s creation.

Masha’Allah!

Butterflies Lapbook

This is my daughter, Samira’s lapbook all about butterflies. We were planning to save this for the Spring but she was so keen to get started that she got it finished in time to share with you all just as Spring time begins, masha’Allah.

We were also planning to do a project on raising butterflies alongside this lapbook, but as of yet, we’ve not spotted any butterflies or caterpillars. Alhamdulillah, the weather is becoming milder and we are finally seeing some much needed sunshine, so insha’Allah we’ll be able to get out into the garden to have a look for some creepy crawlies soon.

When the lapbook opens out, inside are various mini-books and templates.

I found the lapbook templates and study unit on the Homeschool Share website. Some of the templates I made myself and you can find them available to download for free from my BOX.net file sharing widget, which you will see as you scroll down on the right on the menu screen. The other templates you can find here.

First up is a lovely little mini book all about the different flowers that butterflies like.

This is a little flap in which Samira wrote up a little bit of information on the life span of butterflies.

Next is a T-book all about how butterflies defend themselves from predators.

We were all really amazed at how this wonderful little creature camouflages and disguises itself … the Dead Leaf Butterfly is truly one of Allah’s wonders.

Next we looked at the anatomy of the butterfly, and although the diagram below doesn’t show great detail we learned from a book that like all insects, butterflies bodies are divided into 3 parts: the head, the thorax and the abdomen.

As a reminder of our Honey Bee Project, we also learned that butterflies are important as pollinators too.

Samira wrote about how when a butterfly lands on a flower to sip the nectar, the pollen sticks to her legs and body and is carried on to other flowers.

Then Samira completed this mini-flap book all about the predators of the butterfly.

When the flap is opened it reveals 3 smaller flaps showing the different animal groups that are predators of the butterfly. Under those flaps Samira drew some pictures of the different predators.

Then she made this cute little flap book all about caterpillars.

On the front of each flap is a question about the caterpillar and Samira wrote the answers under the flaps.

Next we did a venn diagram looking at the differences and similarities between the moth and the butterfly.

We also learned what Butterflies and Caterpillars like to eat.

When learning about what caterpillars like to eat, Samira read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle to the little ones, and we watched a great time-lapse video on the Swallowtail Butterfly which showed the caterpillars eating their eggshells after hatching, then eating their way through leaves, and as they grew, they molted and literally crawled out of their old skins, and then they would eat that too!!

After learning about the body parts of the butterfly, Samira was able to complete these wing-shaped maths flaps.

The maths problem is written on the front of the flap and then Samira wrote her answer inside.

Then we did a little lesson on symmetry, we learned about the AMAZING detail of the butterfly’s wings and how Allah has created them having perfect symmetry.

We read and discussed the following excerpt:

If you look at the wings of the butterflies in the photograph you will see perfect symmetry. These wings decorated with figures, spots and colours are masterpieces of art and the marvels of creation of Allah.

While examining these wings you will easily notice that the figures and the colours on both sides are identical, no matter how complex its design. Even the smallest spot appears identically on both sides. Hence, there occurs a perfect design and symmetry.

At the same time, a colour on this very delicate and fine wing never gets mixed with another colour and the existing colours are distinguished from the others with a distinct border. These colours are formed by series of spots arranged one on another. How can these spots, that would be scattered with a touch of a finger tip, be arranged, without any loss, to form the exactly identical design on both wings? Even an extra single spot would cause the symmetry to be corrupted. But you can not find any kind of disorder on any one of the butterfly wings on earth. Each of them has aesthetic and well-arranged appearance that looks as if it was the masterpiece of a talented artist. This is because the butterflies, like all other living beings, are created by the Superior Creator, Allah.

“He is Allah , the Creator, the Inventor of all things, the Bestower of Forms (or Colours). To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names: whatever is in the heavens and on earth, doth declare His Praises and Glory: and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.” (Surah Al-Hashr: 24)

I cut out a butterfly template and Samira painted one side of the template, then carefully, while the paint was still wet, she folded it over so that the pattern printed (almost) the same on the otherside. Then after it was dried, I added in the ayah from Surah al Hashr as a reminder of this remarkable piece of Creation, masha’Allah!

Then Samira put together this simple little book which explains the Life Cycle of the butterfly. We got this from Enchanted Learning.

Then I made some cards showing well known British butterflies. The lapbook templates do include cards for well known North America and Rainforest butterflies, but I thought it would be nice to learn about the butterflies we are likely to see. I visited this British Butterflies website where I was able to find out which species of butterflies we are likely to spot in our region at this time of the year (March) and I decided to make a few cards on these species.

At the end of this project, Samira chose a poem to use to do some copy work. It’s called The Caterpillar by Christina Rosetti:

Brown and furry
Caterpillar in a hurry;
Take your walk
To the shady leaf or stalk.

May no toad spy you,
May the little birds pass by you;
Spin and die,
To live again a butterfly.

She copied up the poem and illustrated the rhyming couplets.

Finally on the back of the lapbook, she put together a diagram of the Butterfly Lifecycle, masha’Allah.

We had great fun learning about this wonderful and amazing insect, and I’m sure you will too. Have fun this Spring and try making your own lapbook about the butterfly. For more Spring time ideas, why not check out our Honey Bee Lapbook or our fun art and craft Cress Caterpillar.

Check back soon for news of our Raising Butterflies project, insha’Allah.

Butterfly Life Cycle

Last Spring I got onto the subject of metamorphosis with my eldest two and after giving them some examples of the creatures that undergo this process I let them choose which animal they would each like to focus on. Yusef decided he would like to learn about the frog (which was rather fortunate, because at the time grandad had just discovered spawn in his pond. So we were able to take some and watch the process right before our eyes, masha’Allah!)

Samira chose the butterfly and after watching some videos on the internet about the Life Cycle of the Butterfly, she made this colourful poster. This Spring we are hoping to watch the process up close. Every Spring we get lots of caterpillars in our garden, so we will try collecting some, feeding them in a tank and hopefully watch them develop into butterflies (or moths, depending on the caterpillar species).

Samira is also going to make a lapbook all about butterflies, and we may even do the life cycle of the frog again so that the younger ones can join in - so lots planned for this coming Spring insha’Allah.

Honey Bee Project

This was one of the largest and most detailed projects I have ever worked on with my kids and I also learned so much along the way, masha’Allah. The Honey Bee is the most fascinating creature and is truly a blessed creation. I can’t take full credit for this project because it was actually emailed to me in a Lapbook format from an absolutely wonderful list I’m on dedicated to Lapbooking. Anyone interested in Lapbook or wanting to know more would benefit from signing up here insha’Allah. This list is set up to coincide with the Islamic Lapbooking Blog which is an absolute must-see for anyone addicted to Lapbooking.

The above photo doesn’t do true justice to the scale of this piece of work. It is two A1 sheets taped together. It was so large and so heavy that even a combination of blu-tac and drawing pins couldn’t keep this on the wall for more than 24 hours at a time! Eventually it came down from the wall and is being kept in safe storage until we can take it apart carefully and put it together into a lapbook form.

All the mini-books and templates for this project are available to download for free in my BOX.net file share widget which you will find as you scroll down the menu on the right of the screen.

With a whole chapter of the Qur’an (Surah An-Nahl) named after this amazing creature, it was the focal point of the project to look at the ayat (verses) which mention the honey bee. We read the verses and then discussed the meaning of it and I asked the kids what they thought the verses meant in their own words, and by the end of this project they were amazed that these two short verses were so precise and detailed enough to show that Allah is the Creator of amazing things, subhan’Allah!!

We put together a set of about 10 vocabulary cards. I googled for some images to add to the vocabulary cards to help the kids understand a little better what we were talking about, and as I said before, I learned quite a bit too from the very beginning! There was a nice template of a pocket to fit our vocab cards into. Alot of the stuff I printed onto various shades of yellow card for obvious reasons ;D

We made some hexagonal cells from cardboard and then filled them with scrunched up golden tissue paper to make them look like honey-filled cells.

I’m sure many of you will have seen something like this before. This shows the four stages of the life of the honey bee. From the egg through to the adult stage. Turn the wheel to see the different stages.We also watched a great time lapse video on the development and growth of the honey bee here.

Then we learned a bit more about the Queen Bee herself and put together this simple question and answer flap book. The questions were pasted onto the front of the flaps and the answers were researched and then written inside. We found a lot of information on the Queen Bee here.

 

Another little flap book with a few more details on the Queen Bee.

A diagram on the Honey Bee anatomy coloured and labeled by my son. I got him to do a bit of research himself in a book called ’Ants, Bees and Wasps’ and he was able to use the info from there to complete the diagram labels.

Next we did a bit of research into Drones. These are the male honey bees who fertilise the Queen bees eggs. There are only about 10-15 drones in one hive and their sole job is mate with the Queen. We made a little hexagonal-shaped flap with some info on Drones.

The flap template was actually quite small considering all the information we wanted to include, so I decided it would be a good opportunity to let my son brush up on his IT skills. So he sat and typed up the information into hexagonal boxes which we then printed, cut out and pasted onto the flaps. We found lots of  information about Drones here and we found this video very useful too, masha’Allah (although I would advice caution if visiting the website of Harun Yahya, Allahu alem)

The Waddle Dance (sometimes known as the Waggle Dance) is a very interesting phenomenon of the Honey Bee, masha’Allah. I knew next to nothing about this until we watched this informative video. We watched the video a few times and then I got the kids to tell me in their own words what they understood about it. Then my son wrote inside the little book to explain what he understood about the Waddle Dance, what it is and why the bees do it.

The term “busy bee” is no joke! The Worker honey bee has an almost never-ending list of jobs to do as you can see from the photos above. All the worker bees are non-reproducing females and they work almost non-stop until they die. On average, the worker bees live for about 6 weeks in the Summer and 4 months in the winter. The reason they live longer in the winter is because they are not collecting nectar or pollen during this time.

We really enjoyed doing the research to make this little T-book on what bees do for us and what they give us. Again, the template was very small so after talking about this subject I typed up these little flaps, printed them and folded them.

Next we made a list of all the Honey bee’s predators. We found a long list of Honey Bee Predators here but alot of them were animals that even I didn’t recognise, so I decided it would be a good idea to print pictures of the predators too, just to make it a bit easier for the kids to understand. We also watched a couple of really interesting videos on how bees deal with predators using a defence tactic called “balling”. For some reason, these videos were my son’s favourite part of the project (why is it always boys who like the gory stuff LOL!)

Bee Balling Video 1     

Bee Balling Video 2

We printed and pasted a larger photo of the Golden Rod Spider attacking a honey bee.

I searched for hours one night looking for a labelled diagram detailing the process step-by-step on how bees make honey but I couldn’t find anything suitable anywhere. So in the end I resolved to make a diagram myself. If you would like to use it, you can download it from the link here by scrolling down to the item titled: “How Bees make Honey”.

After looking at how bees make honey we made a brainstorm chart showing the health benefits of honey.

Then we made a note book with photos and information on different kinds of bees.

We found out a lot of information about different kinds of bees here and we extended our research using Wikipedia.

Finally we finished up with a colouring page and a honeycomb-shaped worksheet to list facts about bees. All in all, it was a very thorough and enjoyable project.

ALHAMDULILLAH FOR THE HONEY BEE!!!