Brown And Furry
Brown
and furry
Caterpillar in a hurry,
Take your walk
To the shady leaf, or stalk,
Or what not,
Which may be the chosen spot.
No toad spy you,
Hovering bird of prey pass by you;
Spin and die,
To live again a butterfly.
-
Christina G. Rossetti
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Directions:
Print out the animal picture and color. Cut out the pictures by
cutting on the solid lines and dotted lines. Assemble the picture
by connecting each end of the base piece with double-sided or
scotch tape so the picture stands up. Print
out the page with the poem and the facts and place it in your
own poem book. Illustrate the poem. Write your own story or poem
and add it to your poem book.
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Caterpillar
Facts.
Caterpillars
are the larvae (the young) of butterflies and moths. They
crawl and look like worms but they are not. They have six legs,
chewing mouthparts, and no wings.They
may be brown, yellow, white or green with black rings. They have
a distinct head, a thorax of three segments, and an abdomen of
ten segments. Legs are on the thorax. Some
caterpillars have fleshy abdominal prolegs, but these are not
true legs. The skin may be fuzzy, smooth, or bristly.
The head bears a pair of antennae (feelers) and a few simple eyes.
During the
larval stage, for about two months, the caterpillar eats and eats
and eats, and grows and grows and grows. It does not eat just
anything. The parent (butterfly) has laid its eggs on the
very plants that will feed its larvae. When the eggs hatch,
the young caterpillar has the food that it needs to grow. As it
grows, it sheds its skin (molts) many times as its body
increases in size. In the fall, when it is fully grown, the butterfly
caterpillar stops eating and forms a smooth hard case (chrysalis)
around itself and hangs from a twig or leaf. Moth
caterpillars spin a thick silk web called a cocoon around
their bodies and fasten themselves to a twig or rough spot. This
is the pupa stage. The pupa grows in the chrysalis
or cocoon to an adult. In the spring, the adult butterfly
or moth break out of their encasements with wings and six legs.
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