I have a friend from church who is also a homeschooling mom, and she lives by a field that has lots of milkweed. She and her kids collected some monarch caterpillars from the plants and put them in jars that they prepared for it. We were so lucky that she thought of us and brought us a chrysallis to watch a Monarch butterfly hatch.
We watched the chrysallis and it started to turn color one night, so we knew the event would be happening soon. During the week, we had science lessons about butterflies and Monarch migration.
Then we woke up one morning and the chrysallis was blackish, but when you got close it really was transparent and you could see the butterfly folded up in there.
We suspended the jar lid with the hanging chrysalis from a metal stand with popsicle sticks taped to it. Then we went to finish math. We came out 10 minutes later and the butterfly was out! We missed the jail-break!
Butterflies don't fly away immediately when they hatch. They need time for their wings to dry (Maybe an hour or 2), so we took turns letting the butterfly climb onto our fingers. We brought it outside so when it was ready we could let him fly.
The butterfly began to open his wings. Open and close, open and close. We had other things to do, so we set the Monarch on a tree branch and eventually he flew away. It was so fun to have that experience of hatching a monarch!
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