Charlotte Gutierrez
University of Houston

My cooperating teacher has caterpillars in our classroom right now. They have not been a distraction to the students, because she puts them above these cabinets and they are out of sight whenever we are not doing science. She has told me that having the caterpillars for the life cycle unit has helped some of the second graders visually.

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Hi Carrie, I have had caterpillars in my classroom for second graders. We are doing a lesson over the life cycle of a butterfly. The students come to observe what the caterpillars are doing inside the glass with their magnifying lens and they record their observations in their interactive science notebook. My cooperating teacher says that there has been a positive outcome to having caterpillars...

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Since your lessons are about an hour long, have you considered trying to break up the lesson for a couple of days? I think that it gives your first graders a brain break too, since I do not know any first grader who can sit still for an hour. Also, you can try activities that have students being detectives and discovering clues in a lesson over safety.

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