My brother found a Monarch butterfly’s chrysalis attached to a wall while out and he collected it with us in mind. He brought it over for Mrs. Sayuri and Mr. Happy Feet to study.

We glued it to the top of the inside of a shoe box so that it would be hanging when it emerged after the transformation from a caterpillar to a butterfly (mariposa) was complete. I just used a dot of hot glue and it worked perfectly for attaching it.
Over the course of about two weeks, the chrysallis went from a beautiful aqua green with gold flecks to a dark almost black color near the end.
One morning we came downstairs and to our surprise the butterfly was drying its wings, having emerged from it’s chrysalis.

The children were enthralled with it. It took a good while for it to dry its wings. The children were so excited to be able to “hold” a butterfly.
Here you can watch a video of a monarch butterfly emerging from a pupa live.
How Awesome is our Creator? Watching this video of the metamorphasis from a monarch caterpillar to a pupa amazed me.
Here’s a link to a site offering a printable coloring sheet illustrating the life cycle of the monarch butterfly.
What a nice family scientific project. I enjoy the text as well as the photographs.
Great post!
What a magical transformation for the children to observe and enjoy.