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

In small groups, teachers used a big book format to record what children knew about the caterpillars, their growth, structural changes and behaviors. As children shared their ideas, they were often challenged to give evidence that supported their comment. These books became shared journals for the children.

"Caterpillars grow," said Nitchka.

Mrs. Clement asked, "What is the evidence?"

"Three weeks ago, he was only the size of Abe Lincoln's nose on a penny," said Amanda. Now, he's two pennies long."

"When they grow older, they eat more," said Aaron.

"The holes (in the milkweed leaves) are the evidence," added Spencer. "When they were only half a centimeter, they ate small holes. Now they are eating bigger bits of the milkweed."

Now, "the caterpillar is 3 centimeters long, said Karl.

Mackenzie noticed, "A caterpillar almost ate the whole leaf."

"They ate while we watched. We could see his mandibles," said Megan.

The caterpillar has eaten a lot, and there is a lot of frass," said Josh. He also noted that the caterpillar "... is changing colors. There is yellow white and black."

"And the stripes are getting wider," said Erin.

"They not only have antennas in the front, but they seem to have them in the back," said Tyler.

"Our caterpillars have 6 legs up front."

"The caterpillar scrunches and then stretches to move!"

"He walks faster now," said Trevor.