Smyrna Second Graders Prepare to Raise Butterflies

International Academy of Smyrna students will soon get a hands-on biology lesson by raising caterpillars and watching them metamorphose into butterflies.

Each of the school’s second grade classrooms will receive four or five butterfly eggs on April 20, and will learn about the creature’s life cycle as they grow from eggs to larvae. Once the larvae, commonly known as caterpillars, emerge from their eggs, the students will be responsible for feeding them so that they can enter the pupa (or cocoon) stage.

Once the new butterflies emerge from their cocoons, the second graders will release them into the wild at the park behind the school. It will then be up to the butterflies to lay their own eggs and start the process anew.