September 2015

These first few weeks it's all about caterpillars and butterflies!  On our Nature Walks we have been exploring the milkweed patches around Tompkins Field.  We've broken leaves off the plants to see the milk* and searched for caterpillars to take back to the classroom.  In the classroom many caterpillars have turned into beautiful, green chrysalises.  We await the emerging caterpillars.

*Common Milkweed, when broken, lets out a milky sap. This sap has poisons in it, called Cardiac Glycosides. Some animals can eat the glycosides and not be harmed. When the Monarch butterfly's caterpillar munches the leaves of milkweed, the glycosides go into its body, making the caterpillar poisonous to predators. Even after the caterpillar has changed into an adult butterfly, it keeps the glycosides in its body.