For Science Week, we started off by watching a live lesson based on a farm. This was to look at life cycles in real life. We first saw a herd of sheep and listened about how reproduction works and the gestation period of a sheep at the beginning of their life cycle. We were then lucky enough to witness a lamb being born.

After this, we then looked closer at a cows life cycle. Again, we were lucky enough to witness a calf being born and it’s first few moments with its mother trying to help it up. 

We wrote down notes about the life cycle of the cow and the sheep. We then did our own research about other life cycles. 
We had to investigate the life cycle of an insect, an amphibian and a bird so we could see the difference between them. 
We decided for the amphibian we will research a frog. For a bird we will research a chicken and finally for the insect we will research a caterpillar. 
 

After we had completed our research and note taking, we then turned this research into a life cycle. We showed how the cycle goes round in stages like we did in our notes. We were then able to compare the different life cycles of each one - looking in detail at how the time span for the different one changes depending on if it is a mammal, an insect, a bird or an amphibian. 

To bring our life cycle work to life, we have now got our own caterpillars to watch grow into butterflies. 
They will stay as caterpillars for a couple of weeks and then they will cocoon themselves into their chrysalis.
We will then place these safely into our chrysalis station within our butterfly home and watch them turn into Painted Lady Butterflies. 

We have now had our caterpillars for around 2 weeks now and they are now nearly fully grown and ready to put themselves into their chrysalis.

Miss Smith had to take the caterpillars home over our Easter break and all the caterpillars formed into their chrysalis during this time. 

They then started to come out of their chrysalis. Two happened while we were at school so we got to see how the butterfly wings start quite small and then grow and develop in colour. Once all 5 had emerged from their chrysalis, we monitored them and fed them for a few days before releasing them in our den area surrounded by trees to keep them safe.