''Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life. And everyone deserves a little sunshine.'' - Jeffrey Glassberg.
This is exactly what the third-grade students at Southwestern Elementary School got when they recently participated in their butterflies unit. The students in Mrs. Minarovich's class had an up-close look at the life cycle of the butterfly, while they raised 32 Painted Lady butterflies from the larva stage to the adult butterfly stage. Throughout the unit, students studied parts of the caterpillar and butterfly, what they eat, and how they molt and metamorphose. In their preparation to set them free, many of the kids wrote little butterfly diplomas to represent their graduation from caterpillar to butterfly. At the release, the students said a speech, and then watched them fly away from flower to flower. Although saying goodbye is always bittersweet, it was a great learning experience for the students.