Last week when we arrived back at school, some students noticed that the swan plants had grown a lot over the lockdown. They were healthy and big with caterpillars AND there were several chrysalis hanging in the plants and along the fence and classrooms.
We shared with the school to be careful and only look at them - no touching!
The following day, the same students watched a butterfly hatch. They noticed another chrysalis was black and looking ready to hatch. They set up an ipad to video the hatching. The girls decided that a time lapse went too fast so they videoed with the idea of speeding up the footage and adding music once the butterfly had hatched.
The girls were SURE the butterfly would hatch soon..but when they checked every 15 minutes or so...still no butterfly! At lunchtime they ate next to the ipad to make sure nobody accidentally knocked the camera. After lunch there was still no butterfly!
The end of the day arrived and all the children had to go home, luckily one of the girls is Mrs Cutler's daughter so she was able to stay and watch the camera and the butterfly because she did not have a bus to catch.
Finally the time came and the butterfly hatched!
The girls communicated all evening, sharing footage and deciding how they would edit, and what music they would add.
The next day the movie was sped up and shared with the school. The girls also decided to take photos of all of the stages to share the butterfly life cycle with the junior classes.
The incidental learning that came from noticing chrysalis was huge! The school enjoyed watching the video, the junior classes especially.
