Caterpillar Habitat

About a month ago the girls and I visited our local nursery where they both picked out some herb plants for our kitchen. We potted them when we got home and Bubble and Squeak have been looking after them each day, watering and trimming them. All of the plants seemed to be thriving except our coriander.
I couldn't work out what we were doing wrong, no matter what we tried it seemed to be disappearing before our eyes. About two weeks ago though we spotted the problem - a bright green and very fat caterpillar!

We spotted him just before bath time so decided to leave him in peace until later that night and then put him out in the garden. When we returned though we found him hard at work making himself a cocoon;

So we changed our plans and have created a little habitat for him in our science corner. We did some research on the net and discovered that our little green caterpillar would most likely be a moth, so the girls are very excited to see what it will look like when it emerges.

The girls are intrigued and asking a million questions, so we've been using this as an opportunity to learn more about butterflies and moths; their body parts, life cycles, what they like to eat and where they live.

We've dug out all the books we have about caterpillars, butterflies, moths and insects. Next library day we are hoping to find some more to add.

Bubble and Squeak both made pictures of what our caterpillar looked like and we will make some of the moth when he emerges as well.

The girls had fun making some of their own creations too.
Bubble's of course was rainbow coloured and I love that Squeak used lots of different materials on hers (crayons, textas and pastels).

We've been adding a new 'interesting fact' to our wall each day.

We will update when our little friend has finally emerged and take some photos before we let him go outside!