Field Trip!

Field Trip to the Butterfly Museum

The next part in out experience of integrating the life cycle of a butterfly is to plan a field trip to a local (if possible) butterfly Museum. The museum that we will be looking at is the Missouri Botanical Garden. At the museum, it will provide the children an opportunity to observe and view the a variety of different butterflies. The children will get a tour of the facility and assist in tending to the butterflies at the observatory. This is a great way to get the children physically active and become more engage with the environment of the butterflies.

Open Tuesday-Sunday 

ADMISSION

$6 general admission
$4 children 3-12
Free children 2 & under

Butterfly Kit

• Riker mounts with specimens of Owl butterfly, Blue Morpho butterfly and Atlas moth
• Butterfly Identification Guides
• Monarch Life Cycle Poster
• All Aflutter poster
• Watch Me Grow: Butterflies
• Magic School Bus: Bugs, Bugs, Bugs DVD
• Description pages
• Activity pages

Conservatory

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The tropical conservatory is the heart of the Butterfly House. Its carefully controlled environment houses nearly 2,000 tropical butterflies in free flight. As many as 80 butterfly species and 150 tropical plant species are exhibited. Few moments in nature are as magical as watching a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis. This rarely seen transformation becomes an everyday occurrence in the "Miracle of Metamorphosis." Hundreds of chrysalides from around the world are on display with butterflies emerging before your very eyes.

The Butterfly Garden

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Missouri also has a  Butterfly Garden, which  is a "backyard" demonstration garden. Plants were carefully selected to provide habitat for the animals in Faust Park and to serve as host plants for caterpillars and nectar sources for butterflies.

Relating this activity to the Full Day Early Learning kindergarten Program Document:

2.1 participate actively in creative movement and other daily physical activities (e.g., dance, games, outdoor play, fitness breaks) (FD-EL-KP, 2011, pg. 111)


2.2 demonstrate persistence while engaged in activities that require the use of both large and small muscles (e.g., tossing and catching beanbags, skipping, lacing, drawing) (FD-EL-KP, 2011, pg. 111)