Author: Mark

Life Cycle of a “Dragon”

Yesterday we went to Science Sleuths and we studied about metamorphosis.  For our craft we had to design a life cycle of something real or pretend.  I made a life cycle of a dragon.

It is not true because dragons are big lizards.  Lizards are reptiles.  Reptiles do not change too much.  They start off as eggs (mostly; some snakes lay live baby snakes) and then when they hatch, they are miniatures of the adult.

Metamorphosis is like a butterfly; egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult. Or a grasshopper which is egg, miniature of the adult, shedding skin, shedding skin, then adult.

Dragon eggNow for the pretend life cycle of a dragon.

First the adult lays  eggs in the snow.  When the egg hatches, it is an interesting lookingLarva with Fire Shooting Eyes larva because it because it looks like a person with three legs and fire spitting out of his or her eyes.   The larva is called a Thinga majigy. Then they have the pupa stage, which looks like a butterfly chrysalis.  It is black, green and yellow.  Then out hatches the adult.  Rather twisted and weird looking at the time.Pupa

There’s two kinds.   One is red and does not live where there is snow.  It is a lot stronger and has three horns.  They fly to a snowy mountain to lay their eggs.  They never see their eggs again.  The young learn everything on their own.

The blue ones are not quite as strong.  They are faster and thinner though.  They live in the snow.   They often see their eggs because they are usually laid right outside their caves.   All their larva is blue.  The Blue Dragons are more populous.Adults guarding treasure

The fire spitting out of their eyes show how strong they are going to be.  The females fight over the strongest male dragons because they want to mate with them.  Plus he is the most impressive.

Both colors turn green as they get older.  Their life span is 600-700 years.  🙂

I read a book called Dinosaurs of Eden by Ken Ham. I liked the book because it explains that evolutions wasn’t true. The Bible is true!

The dinosaurs were created on the sixth day. Not millions and millions of years ago, but about 6,000 years ago. People lived with the dinosaurs, because they were created by God on the 6th day.

It says that the country of Wales has a dragon picture on its flag.

Tamystropheus looks like a snake but most of the body is thicker. It looks like it has a beak. Theres a story about a peasant farmer who killed on of these dinosaurs in the middle ages. That time they do not think it was true. After awhile, they started to believe that it was true.

Dragons probably were what we call dinosaurs today.

More Monarch Day Care

Sunday we gave the Blue Lid caterpillar a new leaf.  His old leaf was practically gone.

Monday, 18 August 2008,  we transferred the chrysalis to an aquarium.  We used a 10% bleach solution and cleaned it well first.   We need to find him something to climb up on so he can dry properly when he  emerges. We also spritzed him with water so he won’t dry out.

Can you see through this?Monday evening, we noticed that we could see through his chrysalis a little bit.  It means he is almost a butterfly.  Just before he emerges you can see him inside!

Blue lid container; Put caterpillar into cage, we did not measure because he had molted earlier and wasn’t looking too good.  Added two new caterpillars from milkweed collected from across the street.  They were hiding up top so we did not see them at first!  Our new babies are tiny!

Peanut butter container;  We have two caterpillars in here still.  Both are about 11 cm.   Added new leaves because they finished the old ones.

“The Hatchery”; Two babies; both are 1 cm (10 mm) long.

“The Cage”; Cleaned out with 10% bleach solution and lots of water!  Put in large Molted face; Audrey discoveredcaterpillar from Blue lidded container and the large one from the Nursery so they have a large area to continue growing.  Both happily munching now.

Nursery; Cleaned and added new leaf.  Caterpillars 11 and 12 mm long.

It is so fun, but a lot of work to do this, especially keeping the cages clean.  Looking in field for milkweedI would not do it by myself!  I need to invent self cleaning cages!

Tuesday, 19 August 2008.

Got milkweed plant for the cage and leaves for the container.

Blue lid container; caterpillars both very little action.  Did not measure.

Peanut butter container;  15 mm caterpillar is “Mess” and 16 mm caterpillar is “Sea”

Meet Faster the caterpillar“The Hatchery”; Named 12 mm caterpillar “Milk” and 10 mm caterpiller “Weed”

“The Cage”; Changed milkweed because it was practically gone.  Named 34 mm caterpillar “Faster” and bigger one “Eating”

Nursery; Named 12 mm caterpillar “Castor” and 15 mm one “Polex”.

I have to draw a place for them.  Then we are going to build one.  I will put in a place for them to hang.  I need one place for each of “ages” or sizes.

I have learned that caterpillars eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and…

Monarch Day Care

Caution signChrysalis

The cageToday, 15 August we cleaned and gave fresh leaves to all the caterpillars.

Cage; Still need to clean out.  Chrysalis hanging quietly.  We want to put the chrysalis somewhere else and then take pictures of it.  Not sure where we are putting it yet–hopefully in a cage!  After we clean cage, we will put the biggest caterpillar in it.

🙂

Blue Lid Container

Caterpillar in Blue Lid

Blue lid container; Did you know when caterpillars are scared they curl up into a ball?  Caterpillar about 2 cm long.

😉

Peanut butter container; Moldy food. :(  Put caterpillar in nursery.  He is on the lid without moving; think he may be molting.  Molting means shedding skin.  He does it because he grows out of his skin.The Hatchery
🙂

The Hatchery”; Two babies; 5 cm and 6 cm long.  Last of our babies.

8)

Butterfly Rearing ContainerButterfly rearing container; Lots of tiny frass!  Did not clean; self contained container.  We are not going to use this kind of container again, because we can’t measure or see caterpillars easily all the time.  It is good because we don’t have to clean out frass and the leaves stay fresher longer.One of Nursery caterpillars

😉

Opened nurseryNursery; Added “Peanut Butter” Caterpillar.  Both of the other babies are 5 cm long.

I hope that you are enjoying my caterpillar series!

Caterpillar News break

Our big caterpillar is in his chrysalis.  This morning he was hanging in a j-shape on a milk weed.  He glued himself on.

Then he started making his chrysalis this afternoon.  From what all I saw, he was partly done and shaking.  It looked like a green bag with golden dots on the bottom.  It went from the bottom of him to the top of him.  It looked like he was getting into the bag by jumping in.  The top half you could still see his stripes!

We could not take pictures of him working because we could not get the camera to focus through his cage.  Momma said we did not want to knock him off.  I think he looks like a Christmas tree ornament.  Momma says he is Newly made chrysalissmaller than she thought he would be.

Next we will wait until tonight to move him somewhere.  Where do we put him?  I don’t know!  He will stay there about 2 weeks until it is time to get out!

I like taking care of my caterpillars but it is hard work.  It would be easier if they were in a different kind of cage, I don’t know what kind.

Now I just have to be patient for when he hatches.

Monarch Day Care continued

Upside down caterpillar

Newly hatched caterpillars

Today (12 August) we found three newly hatched caterpillars!  They are about 2 mm long.  Two of them were still eating their egg cases.  We put two of them in the butterfly rearing container.  One egg looks like it is going to be hatching soon.

🙂

  • Cage; Still EATING MACHINE!  Cleaned out frass.  It is green!  “Looks like bunny scat”,  Audrey says.   Trouble measuring, estimated 5 cm (2 inches).
  • Blue lid container; the caterpillar is still 9 mm.
  • Peanut butter container; gave fresh leaf.  Caterpillar is 11 mm. “Little poop is cutie because it’s just baby caterpillar”, Audrey again!
  • “The Hatchery”; down to 2 white eggs and we are questioning if the dark one is an egg or not.
  • Butterfly rearing container; still has one egg.  Added 2 newly hatched caterpillars from the Hatchery.
  • New Nursery!; Moved one caterpillar egg and one caterpillar from the Hatchery.

CaterpillarThank you Audrey for volunteering to help Momma measure the caterpillars and clean and feed them! 🙂
We will keep you updated.

Monarch Day Care

My caterpillar drawing

We are raising Monarchs.  I have been wanting to do that for a LOONNGG time.

Monarch EggNow I have lots of caterpillars and eggs–mostly eggs.   On Thursday, 7 August, we saw out of our window, a Monarch laying eggs on some milkweed around 1:30.

On Friday, we collected two eggs.  We snipped off some of the milkweed leaves and we also learned two caterpillars there and got them.  We put them in airtight containers with milkweed leaves.

Saturday one egg hatched!  We also washed out their frass (caterpillar scat).Caterpillar’s home

We had four containers on Saturday.

  • Blue lid container the caterpillar is .5 cm.
  • Peanut butter container the caterpillar is .5+ cm.  (I don’t have an accurate ruler)
  • “The Hatchery” has one egg with a black spot.  We think it is a head, it means it will be hatching soon.
  • Butterfly rearing container has one egg.

On Sunday we found 5 caterpillar eggs at church and four more in a field near our house.  We put them in The Hatchery.  We also found one large caterpillar near pupation stage, probably 1 to 1 1/2 inches long.

We put some milkweed in the refrigerator for caterpillar food later.  We fed the caterpillars Caterpilllar eatingfresh milkweed and cleaned out the frass.

Today’s– Monday– stats.  I have an accurate ruler now 🙂

  • Got new cage for big caterpillar.  He is 4.5 cm long.  Eats one leaf in one night!  He is eating another leaf.  He is a EATING MACHINE!
  • Blue lid container the caterpillar is .9 cm.   Color is darker than before.
  • Peanut butter container the caterpillar is .8 cm and fat!
  • “The Hatchery” has one egg with a black spot and 6 white eggs.
  • Butterfly rearing container has one egg.  I think we have a new caterpillar but I am not sure.  We can’t find the caterpillar but we think we see frass on the bottom.

Eating MachineI know that Monarchs are in their eggs 3 to 5 days.  Then they are caterpillars for two weeks and grow to about 5 cm.  They make a chrysalis and turn into a butterfly!  Then they will live different lengthsMonarch Caterpillar on milkweed leaf of time.   Monarchs go down to Mexico or Lower California in fall.

I will keep you updated!

Andrea has a blog about what she is learning too.   She is doing a very good job!

Catching up!

At the fair we did lots of fun, fun, fun things.  Otherwise known as FUUUUUNNNNN!

We walked, we ate, we looked at animals.  We also looked at the commercial buildings and the exhibit buildings.“What’s going on here?”

Jumping hurdles

 

Family Picture

My favorite thing was the tiger show.   We learned that the White Bengal Tiger does not live in the snow.  They are rare because you need two recessive genes (the white ones) because if you have one white and one yellow, you will have yellow!  If you have two yellows (the dominate genes) you will definately get yellow!  At least that is how I understand it.

We found my pictures and a candle that I made in the exhibit buildings.  The candle earned a green ribbon because we got it in late.   The other ones did a good job.  They both got into the one that the winners are picked out of.  The black and white one got Reserve Champion.  I felt “yeah!” and I was surprised.  Very Surprised!   I am going to try the same categories next year.  Also I want to do models, but I don’t know if I will do one.“Capturing Memories”My patio candle

“Experiences in Color”Dinner time!

The tent I shared with a friendThen Wednesday of that week, I went to Webelo Camp.  Daddy came with me.  He was one of the leaders.

I went boating, swimming, worked with pullies, made a catapult–that works!  Daddy got to do everything I did if he wanted to.Trojans preparing to fight!

The last day we had a great big water fight!  We were pretending that we were in a war against the leaders (the Greeks) .  We were the Trojans!  The Trojans won, that does not go along with History 🙂

My Leaders

We did a skit.  Four people were pretending to ride on a bus.  Four people walk up.  “What are you doing?”

“Riding on the invisible bus”What are you doing?

“Where are you going?”

“Camp”

“Can we go too?”

“Sure”

Now there are eight people riding on the bus.  This happens two more times the exact same way.  Then three more people come up.

“What are you doing?”

“Riding on the invisible bus”

“Oh, that one went for repairs yesterday!”

“Which shop?”Oh, that one went for repairs yesterday!

And all the boys who were riding the invisible bus fell down!

“Oh, that one!”

I liked the play.  It was fun(ny) 🙂 !

I hope Daddy and I can go to camp again next year!

New Blog

Andrea has a blog now!  It is here.

She gets one because she is in first grade.  That is when Momma lets us have a blog.

Andrea is going to dictate to Momma what she wants written on her blog.  And I’m –whether I like it or not–will start writing more by myself.   :(   Momma says I have to write more by myself because I am getting older.

Andrea’s blog is not perfect yet, so you can watch it change!

This is what we found as my first blog!  We thought it used to say “Momma held a snake at Nature Nuts.”

The rest of the story is Andrea and I did not want to hold a snake and Momma told us if we held the snake, she would hold the snake.  Momma was thinking “ewww…disgusting”.  She did not think we would do it.  But we held them!

The snakes we held were born at the Naturalist Office and there were at least twelve.  Momma thinks there were 30 something.  Andrea’s snake kept trying to escape, quite the whippyier.  Momma got another one that was not quiet so fast.

Happy Birthday Great Grandma Bea!

 Wszystkiego najlepszego, Prababka!! Great Grandma Bea and Andrea

Happy Birthday Great Grandma!

Sto lat, sto lat, niech żyje żyje nam
Sto lat, sto lat, niech żyje żyje nam
Jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz, niech żyje żyje nam
Niech żyje nam!

Kocham ciebie!

She was born in 1918 and is osiemdziesiat dziewiec years old.

For those who don’t speak Polish, here is the translation in English!

A hundred years, a hundred years,
May she  live for us.
A hundred years, a hundred years,
May she live for us.
Once again, once again, may she live, live for us,
May she live for us!
 
I love you!
 

Kocham ciebie!

Dziekuje Matka for helping me.

(If you find any mistakes that I made, please help me correct them!  I want to learn as many languages as I can.  Momma helped me by looking these up!)