A "CREATURE Presentation" on the 'Big Screen'

You know it is spring when the caterpillars arrive and you break out the large butterfly habitats!   My class is raising two jars of the Painted Lady butterflies this spring.  We got those little critters last Thursday and, oh my goodness, they must have tripled in size over the weekend!  My kiddos were astonished at how our caterpillars could barely fit in the little jars after only 4 days.  We scrambled to get out our adorable journals from Little Bird Kindergarten and start observing and documenting the changes.  

 One of the "tricks of the trade" I use when we are observing any type of creature is to display them up on the "Big Screen" aka our Promethean Board (or what I affectionately call "The Monstrosity" as it takes up ALL most of my space).  I set up the camera/video feature on my MacBookPro or iPad and connect the device to the Promethean Board.  This sets up a live video feed of what is going on inside the jars/ant farms/tadpole tanks and allows the children easier viewing.  Also, if you have an interactive projection device such as the LUNA Interactive Projection Camera  you can use this as well. 

Below are the pictures from today's observation of our caterpillars plus some old photos of the AntWorks gel ant farms.  I will scour my files for the old photos of our Grow A Frog tadpoles in their "taddy tanks" on the Promethean Board as well.  Enjoy!

The next two photos are the AntWorks gel ant farms.   We needed to place a piece of paper behind the ant farm so that the light had something to bounce back on.  We quickly learned that a white piece of paper (second photo) worked better than a black piece of paper (first photo)- just make sure you don't choose a piece of paper with writing on it! ;) 

What "tricks of the trade" do you use for observing little critters in your classroom?  Hope you had a Happy Monday!