VIDBE-Q Volume 65 Issue 2
27
ago, I had a 4-year-old student with no functional vision ask me how a caterpillar
turns into a butterfly. Although I stated earlier that real-life objects are optimal,
there will be times when we do not have access to such items. So, when we began
talking about each stage of development, we started our discussion about the eggs
and I used small pieces of wax sticks to demonstrate their size and texture. Then,
we explored a plastic caterpillar so that we could focus on the details such as the
legs, the segments in the abdomen and the antennae. Later, we created our own
caterpillars out of clay, pipe cleaners and yarn. Next, we discussed how the
caterpillar goes into a chrysalis and we made one out of cotton and masking tape.
Finally, we explored the parts of the butterfly body and the wings. After we
explored a replica of a butterfly, we recreated our own butterfly using soft clay for
the body and feathers for the wings.
Image 5. Model of the life cycle of a butterfly using cotton leaf with wax for eggs,
plastic caterpillar, tape with cotton for chrysalis, and a clay body with feathered
wings for the caterpillar.
