December 2, 2009 Day 17 Building Our Space Shuttle/ISS Part 1

Last night I cut large pieces of cardboard to the specifications of our budding engineers for the space shuttle. I figured out a way of attaching a few reusable plastic food containers and cardboard tubes that I had hoped would support the children's understanding of how we would create a three dimensional pretend play area based on the drawings they made previously.

We launched this engineering aspect of our Monarchs In Space project by opening painting stations in which children were invited to express their ideas on three panels of our space shuttle with gray, white, and black paint. Part two of this aspect of our engineering project will resume tomorrow when we get out the paint again and work on the panels for our functional "sliding door" that will connect the shuttle to the space station.

December 2, 2009 Day 17 We're waiting for wings!

We're waiting for wings in kindergarten! As time passes we continue making daily observations of the chrysalides, hanging silently from their silk buttons, in the rearing boxes on our project table.

Kindergartners are taking turns working in small groups to complete drawings of the chrysalides, drawing in pencil and layering color with marker. Children have an opportunity to look very closely through the plastic wrap window of the rearing boxes at the chrysalides dangling from the top.

Today we also used the computer projection screen to view the series of photos of the changes the caterpillars went through over Thanksgiving break. These were changes that the children missed seeing though we had observed them in September when we were working with caterpillars from our schoolyard.

Many details were visible in the photos that we projected larger than life on the screen. WE saw the beds of silk and silk button attachments to the cremasters of caterpillars hanging in J form, we saw caterpillars eating, resting, and searching for a place to put down beds of silk, we saw caterpillars making pink frass, caterpillars in J form turning green, piles of striped caterpillar skin that fall after a chrysalis is formed, chrysalides in various stages of formation, yellow to lime green color changes in the chyrsalides, gold edging and spots on "older" chrysalides, the segmented insect body in a "young" chrysalis, and most intriguing to the children, the appearance of thin white lines of butterfly wing under the green cuticle of the chrysalides.

December 1, 2009 Day 16 Oops!

One of our caterpillars formed a chrysalis that fell to the bottom of the rearing box when the box was moved over Thanksgiving break. In the above photo you can see the chrysalis on the bottom under the feeding boxes. In space on board the ISS, two chrysalides became loose too.

We opened our box and used thread and a drop of hot glue to re-attach the chrysalis to the top of the rearing box. We were worried that maybe the butterfly couldn't come out if it was not hanging up like the others. Some kindergartners were thinking that if we could put it back up, we should; I showed them how we could try and replicate the caterpillar's attachment with materials that we had in our classroom. The following photo shows the repair.

November 28 and 29 2009 Days 13 and 14 Weekend News

Photos above taken November 28.



Photos above taken November 29.

November 27, 2009 Day 12 All About J Form

We see our caterpillars are in various stages of beginning the process of pupating. From the Monarchs in Space Teachers Guide we understand that a caterpillar will empty its gut when it has finished developing and at that time produces frass with a pinkish hue. Pinkish frass is visible in the rearing boxes today. After emptying its gut, a monarch caterpillar will search for a sheltered, horizontal surface; as we see the caterpillars are orienting to the underside of the top of the rearing boxes.

To attach securely for the duration of the pupal (chrysalis) stage, the caterpillar spins a bed of silk and then a silk button in the center. It is from this button, with its anal prolegs (these are the pair of suction cup legs at the end of the caterpillar) anchored by crochets (tiny hooks on the legs) that the caterpillar releases it's hold and hangs like a letter J, upside down. It may, depending on the temperature, hang in this position for 12-16 hours.

Toward the end of the J stage, the caterpillar's color changes due to the chrysalis developing inside and the caterpillar usually straightens in its hanging position. What happens next, happens quickly. Simply stated, the caterpillar succumbs to contractions that cause the caterpillar's skin to split and move upward toward the silk button attachment, revealing the chrysalis that has been forming. When the skin reaches the silk button, the caterpillar's cremaster is released and pushed into the silk button and the chrysalis twists to secure the cremaster to the silk.

Over the next few hours as this process repeats itself in our rearing boxes, we expect to see these beautiful, lime green jewels of metamorphosis hanging where our letter J stage caterpillars are hanging now.

November 27, 2009 Day 12 The Landing

Welcome home Atlantis and the crew of the STS-129 Mission. The landing was beautifully executed at 9:45 am at the Kennedy Space Center. Meanwhile, more than 200 miles above planet earth, the Expedition 21 Crew on board the ISS is traveling at 17,000 miles per hour. Keeping them company, as you know, are three silent, lime green monarch chrysalides.

Tonight, as you gaze up into the night sky and consider the perspective you have on the heavens and our dear space travelers, you may want to consider as well, the perspective they have of the earth...and of us.

November 26, 2009 Day 11 First Chrysalides Formed!

Happy Thanksgiving! Caterpillars are home with me over break so that they can maintain their optimum growth at temperatures between 70 and 72 degrees and have 12 hours of daylight. These are the photos I collected at noontime and again just before midnight.

Our first J-stage caterpillars appeared in the morning; all other caterpillars were resting or eating. The two J-stage caterpillars were the ones who were the previously discolored, splotchy caterpillars we put in isolation and fed milkweed leaves for the past few days.

The next time I checked them was around midnight. Some caterpillars were still resting, some were eating, some seemed to be making silk beds, a few more were in J-stage, and finally, we had our first two chrysalides visible!

Note of interest: Visible in one photo is the pink-hued frass that is common for a caterpillar when it "empties its gut" prior to J-stage, and visible in another is a dark pile of caterpillar skin that was shed as the chrysalis was revealed.

For more photos, please click on the slide show at the side bar of this blog!