Rainbow and Sunshine: butterfly feeders

The children in Rainbow and Sunshine classes have been exploring the life cycle of butterflies. We've done lots of exciting activities alongside the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, from sequencing the story to making caterpillar and butterfly models.

Egg box caterpillars and a butterfly made from a tube are decorated according to the children's own design using tissue paper collage, paint, moving eyes and antennae.

We've also been enjoying the book, Ben Plants a Butterfly Garden by Kate Perry, a story about Ben the bear who loves butterflies and wants to know how flowers and butterflies grow.

We talked about foods that butterflies might like and found that they like to drink nectar from flowers. They use their tongues like a straw to sip it. Butterflies also like to eat over ripe fruit. We found out that butterflies use their antennae to "smell" and that they use their feet to taste.

We discovered that butterflies are able to see the colours red, green and yellow and so they like to drink nectar from flowers of those colours.

They also like the nectar from flowers that are purple, blue and white.

The children made Butterfly Feeders. They are easy and fun to make and look pretty hanging from a tree in the playground!

Butterfly Feeders
What you need:

colourful sponges

string/twine

a pencil/tool to make holes in sponge
Nectar Recipe

Nectar Recipe:

4 parts boiling water
1 part sugar

Dissolve the sugar in boiled water
Refrigerate unused nectar for 1 week

*We used warm water at school for safety reasons

What to do:

Make the Nectar and let it cool.

Take a sponge and using the pencil, make a hole in each corner of the sponge,

or make two holes, one in the centre of each short side, if preferred.

Thread the string through the holes to make hangers.

Knot the threads.

Pour the cooled nectar into a shallow dish.

Press the sponge into the nectar and wet thoroughly.

Outside and ready for hanging!
Remember to check the sponges and add more nectar when dry.

Hang the feeders from branches of trees, and among flowers. Not only are the feeders an additional source of food, they also provide a resting spot for the butterflies while they drink.