Our Moth Has Emerged

Our little moth has finally emerged from his cocoon! 

He must have been super quick about it because one minute he wasn't there and the next there he was, hanging out casually as though he appeared by magic.

The girls were exceedingly excited, there was a lot of photo taking and squealing going on. 

Bubble realised it was our moths birthday so they made a card and left him some treasures :)

Bubble coloured in her moth template to look like 'Mothy' (even temporary pets need a name at our house).

Once it got dark we took the habitat outdoors and gently transferred him to the outside of it, being careful not to touch his wings. 

The girls sat watching him for a long time until he was ready to fly away into the night and do mothy type things.

We carefully cut open Mothy's cocoon to have a look inside.
The girls were very interested to see the fine silky bits holding the leaves together and the hard little case inside that was the caterpillars skin.

We put them into a petri dish so we could examine them easier.
Bubble was particularly intrigued by the skin the caterpillar had left behind and reading about how it turns into a goo before becoming a moth or butterfly. 

The girls have learnt so much about caterpillars, butterflies and moths from this experience, we'll be on the look out for more cocoons and chrysalises so we can do it all over again!

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!

Faraway Tree

I love creating things for Bubble and Squeak to enjoy, but one thing I love even more is when they create something themselves.
We've been listening to Enid Blyton's 'Faraway Tree' in the car lately, the girls both love the CD's which are read by Kate Winslet. 
We don't have a book to go with the discs yet but we talk about what we think the Faraway Tree looks like and Bubble likes to come up with her own little stories.
Today I discovered her busily constructing her own version of the Faraway Tree using things from our craft box. She had taped together toilet rolls as the trunk of her tree, used pop sticks as branches and green bottle lids as leaves.

Originally she had been using a pencil to make holes for the pop sticks but I helped her make slits in the tubes with a craft knife instead.

I love the way she taped the lids straight onto the pop sticks!

What an amazingly creative little Faraway Tree :)