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 -  Thursday, April 24, 2008
Many Activities not Practical
Reviewed By: J. Mayfield 
I bought this to use with the Butterfly Garden as we raised Painted Lady butterflies from caterpillars. The book is arranged into 16 Lessons, plus student worksheets and blank pages for notes in the back of the book. Each lesson includes the following sections: * Content Skills -- list of skills from National Science Education Standards met in the lesson. * Pavilion School Kit Materials -- list of materials used in the lesson. * The Idea -- purpose of the lesson or goal of the activity in the lesson. * The Method - a thorough description of how to perform the lesson, including plenty of helpful illustrations. * Lesson Hints -- suggestions to improve teaching and lists of background resources. * Word Power -- vocabulary used in lesson. One flaw in the book is that the lessons for the caterpillars include many activities that involve removing the caterpillars from their jar. However, if you purchase the caterpillars from the Butterfly Garden kit, it says DO NOT OPEN THE JAR, warning to do so might introduce harmful bacteria. So many of the caterpillar activities we did not attempt. On the other hand, the illustrations for the caterpillar activities are excellent and helped us identify parts of the caterpillar and move the chrysalides to the butterfly garden. Overall, I would recommend this book for the great explanations of the caterpillar behavior and butterfly life-cycle, and the wonderful illustrations and teaching hints. Definitely worth the price to avoid making a mistake with your caterpillars and to maximize the learning of the butterfly life-cycle.