Not that kind of love...I already found that 8 and a half years ago! :0) The Love that I am waiting on is a Monarch butterfly. ??????? Let me explain. Every spring I go out and find baby Monarch eggs on milkweed plants in a field and my class and I raise Monarch caterpillars and watch them turn into butterflies. It is by far the coolest and most amazing thing I've ever seen. We watch them hatch from an egg about the size of the tip of a ball point pen, so you can imagine how tiny the caterpillar is. The caterpillar then eats and eats AND EATS it's way into a really big caterpillar. Then we watch it make it's chrysalis and then emerge as a butterfly. Well, those series of events did take place this year...but it was delayed due to not being able to find eggs like I do every year. So, I had to order them off the Internet. Unfortunately, since it took us so long to get the eggs, my kids got to see everything except for them becoming butterflies - THE BEST PART!! So, I had to bring the Monarch chrysalis' home with me and I've been watching and waiting myself. Our first Monarch, which my kids so graciously named, Mr. Austin (hmm...I wonder why!), emerged from his chrysalis on Friday. I wasn't there when he came out of his chrysalis, so Austin filmed me releasing him and I posted it online for my kids to see. So, our last Monarch, Love, is almost ready to come out of her chrysalis and I just can't go to bed until she does. I'm bound and determined to get her emerging from her chrysalis on film. When Monarchs are ready to emerge, their chrysalis turns completely clear and you can see their beautiful color and markings. I just know the second I go to bed she'll come out...so this is why it is 4:30 am and I am awake!! Mr. Austin really was a Mr. You can tell the sex of a caterpillar by two black dots on the lower part of the outside of their wings. If there are two black dots, then it's a male. It was pretty neat how we got the correct sex of this caterpillar, so for all the girls in my class I'm really hoping Love really is female. Here are some pictures of the Monarchs as caterpillars and Mr. Austin when he came out of his chrysalis.
This is Mr. Austin about a week after he hatched! They grow really fast in a week. He's almost 2 inches long!
Here is Love a couple of days before she made her chrysalis! She's A LOT bigger.
Here is Love in her chrysalis!
So, yes, this is by far the most exciting thing that happens in my classroom all year. Too bad the butterfly part didn't happen in my classroom, but at least technology comes in handy here! STILL waiting on Love. It's almost 5 am and I really need to go to bed...but I just know the second I do, she'll come out of that thing! If I can stay up long enough and get it on video, I'll be sure and post it...it's really a cool thing! Oh, well. Night!
-Jennifer :0)
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