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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Our newest cocoon

Confused about the difference between moths and butterflies? cocoons, chrysalis and pupa?
Hope this helps.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Teacher's new caterpillar

 Monday, December 19th, 2011
Teacher found a very green caterpillar outside on the frosty step.  She has rescued it, and we will look after it in school and give it nice leaves to eat and water to drink.  Hopefully it will turn into a healthy moth (or butterfly).


Saturday, December 3, 2011

Congratulations

Great news:  Our school website has received a nomination for an Eircom Junior Spider award!
Read about the Junior Spiders at http://www.juniorspiders.ie/.  These awards are awarded at a national level to schools at primary and post primary level, and we are very honoured to be shortlisted for this award.
Well done to all teachers and students who keep our website up-to-date and looking interesting and colourful.
Well done to all parents, families, students and teachers who use our website to keep in touch with what happens on a day to day basis at school, and who use the links to continue learning at home.

More great news:  Not only did we receive a nomination for our school website, but we also received two more nominations in the Best School Project category:  One of these is for Our Butterfly page of the website http://scoilchaitrionajnrbutterfly.blogspot.com/ , and the other is for Ms. McLoughlin's page of the website http://scoilchaitrionajnrmsmcloughlin.blogspot.com/ .

We wish the very best of luck to our team of teachers and students who will travel to the Helix in Dublin on December 13th to represent our school at the award ceremony.  We hope they wow everyone with their stands, showing other schools how we use our website and project pages and how easy it is to learn lots when using these websites.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Butterfly eggs

Teacher saw a Cabbage White butterfly laying eggs on a cabbage leaf in her garden.
The eggs were orange and they were tiny.  There were about 60 of them altogether.  She brought the leaf with the eggs to school with her, and we all had a look at them.

When we came to school today we noticed that the eggs had changed.  Now they are the smallest caterpillars we have ever seen, little transparent squiggles with a black head on each one.  There is a tiny hole in the cabbage leaf where the tiny caterpillars have eaten it.  We hope these caterpillars will grow and change into beautiful Cabbage White butterflies like their mother!

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011
Our caterpillars are growing so fast, every day!
Friday, September 9th, 2011
Look at how much they have grown, and how few of them there are now!
Friday, September 16th, 2011
We don't need a magnifying glass to see our caterpillars now.  They are growing fast, and they are eating lots.

Monday, September 19th, 2011
Growing so much, even over the weekend.  We can't believe how much they eat now.
Thursday, 22nd September
 Our caterpillars have grown too big for their skins, which they shed last night.
Here is a photo of the caterpillar skins, stuck to the side of the container.
Our bigger caterpillars look really healthy and happy.
Monday, 26th September
Teacher was watching the caterpillars eating the leaves.  They eat such a lot each day.

A little snail joined the caterpillars on the cabbage leaves today.


Monday, 3rd October 2011
Over the weekend most of our caterpillars died (teacher can't figure out why).
The remaining 3 caterpillars spun cocoons and will wait for the warmer weather before they emerge as beautiful White Cabbage butterflies.
The green cocoons are White Cabbage butterfly cocoons, but the two brown cocoons are much smaller.  Teacher found them under a wall at her home.  We wonder what type of butterflies will emerge from these cocoons.  Sleep tight butterflies, we'll see you in the Spring!!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Ms. Flaherty's butterflies

We released three of our butterflies (Bingo, Buttercups and Jumping Bean) from our butterfly garden last week as they had hatched successfully out of the original five.




Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Ms.McLoughlin's butterflies fly away


Ms. Crotty's class release their butterflies








Today we came into school and we had a great surprise. We now have 4 butterflies. The butterflies came out of their cocoons and they were no longer caterpillars but beautiful Monarch Butterflies. We brought them outside into the sunshine and let them fly away. Although they did want to stay around with us as you can see from the photographs. They had some fun with us and then they flew off to begin their journey and their new life as a butterfly.


Sunday, June 12, 2011

Releasing Mrs. Browne's butterflies


We released our 4 butterflies on Friday . We did it at the trees near the school. It was great fun and the kids loved holding them.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Ms. McLaughlin's butterflies


Ms. Tierney's Butterflies

When we came back from our bank holiday break,we found all our butterflies had come out.



Some were reluctant to leave us, but we coaxed them out.Luana even managed to get the most reluctant one to fly off eventually!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Mrs. Browne's butterflies



Teacher took the butterfly garden with the caterpillars in it home for the long weekend in case they decided to hatch out. And guess what they did, one on Monday and the other 3 today. I was so glad cause I was able to give them sugary water and leaves. The kids will be so excited when I bring them in tomorrow.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Caterpillars into cocoons in Junior infants




Four of our five caterpillars went into their cosy cocoons on Sunday night. Miss Ferguson decided that it was best to move them into their more spacious home, the lovely net tent. The last lazy caterpillar was in position (hanging upside down) but wasn't in a cocoon. We transfered them on Tuesday and by Wednesday morning he was in his chrysalis.
Now we just need to keep a close eye on Sharpy, Hairy, Slinky, Prickly and Snakey. We cannot wait to see their beautiful butterfly colours.