Nursery World - EYFS Activities: We’ve explored… butterflies

Children at one setting learned about the lifecycle of butterflies by caring for a disabled one, explains Annette Rawstrone

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The children at Bright Horizons Nursery and Preschool in Hounslow, west London annually enjoy watching the miracle of metamorphosis as they raise their own butterflies, but this year their learning was taken in a whole new direction when one of the butterflies emerged with a damaged wing.

‘Watching the caterpillars eat, change into chrysalides and then emerge as butterflies is a fantastic opportunity for our children to learn about the outside world. They can literally see the butterfly lifecycle taking place over just a few weeks,’ says manager Lucy Little.

‘We also like to use GoPro cameras to record the progress so that the children can revisit what has happened. Actually seeing each stage take place is amazing and it encourages the children to use lots of new descriptive language.’

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