Always loving. Always learning.

Life Cycle of the Woolly Bear Caterpillar / Isabella Tiger Moth

Just a couple days before Thanksgiving, a cute little Woolly Bear Caterpillar came crawling in the hallway of our school. We had found two other caterpillars earlier in the year that were not so friendly (Saddleback Caterpillar and American Dagger Moth), so we made sure to research the characteristics and needs of this furry creature right away. We read that it could make a good class pet so we made it a little home in a small aquarium. After providing a leafy plant to munch on and a stick to crawl on, we agreed to name the caterpillar "Callie".

In our research we learned that Woolly Bears are pretty common and even have a folklore about them. It is said that the length of the brownish-red stripe in the middle of it's body predicts the winter's weather. Callie had a wide brown stripe, which, according to folklore, means it should be a mild winter.

No snow yet this year here in South Carolina but we did endure a few really cold days. Although, it was warm enough to take off our jackets outside today… So, I'd say it's too soon to say if "Callie" was right in her prediction.

Around Christmas, Callie had spun a cocoon. Unfortunately, the transformation happened overnight, so we didn't get to see the action. But it made for quite a shocking surprise one morning.

We thought we would be observing Callie's cocoon for a couple more months, for Woolly Bears are known to pupate in the Spring. However, this past Thursday while we were outside playing, the Isabella Tiger Moth emerged from the cocoon!

Through our research we learned that, once the Woolly Bear has pupated, it has only a few days to find it's mate and complete it's life cycle. We were a little sad, because we would have liked to keep "Callie the Tiger Moth" in our classroom for a little while. But, we also felt responsible to release the moth into nature, so it can go do it's thing.

We definitely wanted to release Callie the Tiger Moth on Friday, before the weekend.

It was a wet, rainy day so we decided to let her outside by our front door.

I feel the process of releasing Callie, was the best way to observe the Isabella Tiger Moth. It reinforced the urgency of the moth completing it's life cycle. And we got to watch it move around a lot more than it was in the small aquarium. Lucky of us, Callie lingered by the door for a little while so we had good opportunity to observe it's body characteristics!

The last few school days the students have been working on creating life cycle diagrams of the Woolly Bear Caterpillar. This multi-step activity began with discussion of the scientific colors we observed on the caterpillar, the cocoon, and the moth. The students then colored pictures of each stage of transformation, cut out each picture, and pasted on a circle (in the correct sequence) the life cycle of the Woolly Bear Caterpillar/ Isabella Tiger Moth. Doing this work would not have been as meaningful if we didn't have that "Callie" crawl into our lives in November, so for our furry friend I am grateful. It was an unexpected lesson plan, but a good one!