Our Cute Caterpillars Might Be Creepy Moths

So I took my adorable little caterpillars to school this morning and the kids were THRILLED! I told them all about how I found them while pulling weeds and you would have thought it was the most exciting story ever! At first I just told them I found an insect and I was going to let the kids make guesses. Then the first kid I called on guessed it on the first try!

When I left the house I discovered one was already spinning it's silk cocoon and I was like "Yay! Pefect timing to show the stages of the life cycle!" Then as the day went on I discovered there was no cute little chrysalis... the silk turned into a creepy spider web looking thing. The kids thought this was GREAT to get to watch with the magnifying glasses. I on the other hand was starting to realize these adorable little caterpillars may very well be creepy looking moths, not butterflies. I didn't get a picture because it's hard to see before it's done being formed. I'll post it soon, hopefully tomorrow.
 
I taught my lesson and we did out investigations and observations about what we saw in the caterpillar jar. Then I taught the kids the word "hypothesis" and they had to decide if there hypothesis was moth or butterfly, then draw it with the colors they thought it would have. I told them I have NO CLUE what this critter will look like, but we know it will turn into one of those two options, so there is no wrong answer as long as they don't draw a bird or a frog or something else impossible to come from a cocoon.

Here is their work on the wall, plus a close up of the one with the most clear drawing of their hypothesis. Not too shabby!

 
In case you missed my new mini unit last week, here is my St. Patrick's Day Emergent Reader Set now available in my TPT store. It includes: 2 emergent readers (ready for 2 sided copying), 1 vocabulary poster (full color), 1 brainstorming web, 3 different stationary pages (2 with prompts, 1 without)

Also, I made an ADDITIONAL St. Patrick's Day stationary page. Even if you go get the emergent reader set, download this too! This *~FREEBIE~* is NOT the same as the 3 included in my set!