In Year 5, the children have been observing the exciting process of metamorphosis which links to our current science unit- ‘Animals and Living Things’.  A few weeks ago we had a cup of 5 caterpillars delivered. For a few days, they rapidly grew in size, ate, spun and created silk. This process was sped up due to the hot and humid conditions! They shed their exoskeletons 4 times and grew to 10 times their original size! After this, they climbed to the top of the cup, hung there and shed their exoskeleton once more before pupating (becoming a chrysalide).  After 2/3 days they were fully formed and we carefully transferred them into the butterfly habitat. At this stage, the magic was really starting to take place. Inside the chrysalis the caterpillar parts were liquifying and rearranging to become a butterfly. Not long after this, they emerged from their chrysalis’ as beautiful ‘painted lady’ butterflies. We fed them apple and sugar water and observed them for a few days.  Today was a very exciting day as it was time to release them. We thought the perfect place for this was our Bee Garden by The Drey. It was amazing watching them fly out of the habitat into the garden!