Silk Worms

Molted skins
Emerson (5 yrs) drew the silk worms in her nature journal with no prompting from me
'cairpt' = caterpillar

When Cohen was a toddler we found a caterpillar on our gardenia and observed it in a jar as it made the transition from caterpillar to moth. It was a joyful project, and one we are currently repeating with twenty or so silk worms that we brought off a little boy via Gumtree. I would have loved to have watched them from the egg stage, but I was too late this season and the eggs had all hatched. But still, there are five stages of growth as a silk worm sheds it's skin and matures, before building it's silk cocoon and metamorphosing into a moth. 

Keeping silk worms is a common project for young children, and so it ought to be. The children are fascinated and delighted by the silk worms. And I think it is a lovely way to discover the wonder of nature while learning patience and observation.

I will  keep you up to date with their progress!

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