To assist students in identifying the caterpillars' body parts and finding evidence for the function of each.

To help children learn to make clear and detailed descriptions of monarch attributes and behavior.

To encourage students to record evidence of growth and change by observing a monarch at different stages and drawing a series of pictures to represent what they see.

Six tiny caterpillars were placed in separate petri dishes on the counter. Each dish also contained a piece of fresh milkweed leaf. Caterpillars were generally found on the softer underside of the leaves. In two petri dishes we placed a penny under part of the leaf, so children could compare the size of something familiar to the size of the caterpillar. At first, the caterpillars were difficult to see with the naked eye. We set up a video flex camera to magnify the image of the tiny caterpillars and allow students to observe the organisms, their structures and their behavior. Under high magnification, the children could compare the caterpillar size to the penny size to understand how much the image was enlarged.

• Lesson One: What do you see?

• Lesson Two: What do you see? Part 2

• Lesson Three: What do we know about our caterpillars?

• Summary

This is the first of two lessons that focus on observational skills. Children observe the monarchs over time and develop a shared vocabulary for describing the caterpillar's structures and behavior . They will also describe attributes such as size, color, and pattern. After sharing ideas and descriptions, they will draw pictures of caterpillars, which will serve as records for comparison.

• 20 minutes - Students watch the caterpillars and talk about details. They describe the size, color, pattern, structures, behaviors and leafy environment.

• 20 minutes - Students draw a detailed picture of the caterpillar in their "Butterfly Journals." Students also include the date and words that tell about their picture.

The caterpillars were one week old. Children first noticed and talked about their size; the caterpillars were bigger, fatter and longer. When we compared one caterpillar's length to a penny, it was as long as Lincoln's head. They also commented that the holes in the milkweed leaf were larger and there were little green things scattered on the bottom of the petri dish. The term "frass" was introduced to help us talk about and describe the insect scat. Children noticed two little black antenna-like structures near the head and two tiny bumps similar to what these antenna had looked like a week ago near the rear.

Children seemed more interested in the caterpillar's behavior this week. Many larva were motionless on the underside of the leaves. Children tended to describe the caterpillars in terms that they would use for themselves. For example, they said the larva was "tired" or "sleeping." After watching the larva for some time, one of the caterpillars began to move its body in little squeezing motions, and then it flicked a piece of frass across the leaf. At that point the students' behavior seemed more notable than the caterpillar's. They could hardly contain themselves because they thought it was so disgusting and funny at once.

After calming down, children once again drew a picture of the caterpillar in their butterfly journals. Some children attempted to show how the caterpillars had grown by drawing them life size and showing the comparison from one week to the next. In their drawings, many children included frass and milkweed leaves with larger holes.