Playmates Montesorri Schoolbutterfly project
THE fascinating journey from boring caterpillar to beautiful butterfly was studied recently by the boys and girls of Playmates Montessori School.
The pupils were delighted last month when their long-awaited container of caterpillars arrived in school.
The caterpillars were ordered by the teachers and the children enjoyed watching them go through their life cycle until they turned into butterflies and were released outside last week.
“Watching them develop into five printed lady butterflies was an exciting time for the children” explained teacher Jackie Walshe.
“We learnt about the life cycle of a butterfly and the children were fascinated, but nothing compared to the excitement we all had when we observed all stages of development.”
The class used bandages to wrap themselves into cocoons and enjoyed caterpillar races at PE along with fabulous art activities stories and songs.
Each day the children would go into school and straight away go up to the classroom and there were heads searching the Butterfly Garden to see if any changes had been made.
“The long wait to see the caterpillars develop into butterflies was over on Thursday the 10th of May and we had our first butterfly,” says Jackie. “By Monday we had four and released them on Tuesday and overnight out 5th butterfly emerged.”
Celebrating its 25th birthday this September, Playmates Montessori School is relocating to St Joseph’s national school Sunday’s gate and opening a new service in Presentation School on the Ballymakenny road this coming September.
Although St Joseph’s is an all boys’ school and presentation is an all girls’ school Playmates Montessori will be a mixed preschool in both locations.