One, unfortunately, formed its chrysalis on the inside of my plastic container before I transferred the caterpillars into the classroom habitat. I moved it in with the container top and taped it up so it could still develop. When that butterfly emerged over a weekend, it got stuck on the tape and didn't make it.
The other butterfly that emerged that same weekend was happy and healthy when we got to school on Tuesday. We spent two days observing and drawing pictures of it. Then, we let it go at the end of Wednesday. Here is a video of the it leaving the habitat.
The kids are saying, "Hasta luego," which means, "See you later," and, "Adios," which means, "Goodbye," in Spanish. Since Monarch Butterflies typically migrate down to Mexico, we used a little Spanish to send it off on it's journey.
We still have one chrysalis left. This is the caterpillar that kept sneaking out of the habitat. It made its chrysalis on the outside screen. I had to cut that part of the screen off and put in inside the habitat. We are not sure that butterfly is still developing. It hasn't changed into the darker colors that we saw with the other two. We're going to give it until the end of the week to see what happens.
