Hello.
Hmm.
Huh?
Look!
Oh!
Huh?
Whoa!
Hmm.
Whoa!
Huh?
Look!
Oh!
I'm Sally.
And I'm Possum.
Hello!
Oh, yum!
Oh!
Oh!
Ah!
Hmm.
Oh hello, everyone.
Ha-ha!
Yeah.
Ha-ha!
Huh?
Huh?
Hmm.
Huh?
Oh.
What?
Hello, everyone.
Have a look at this.
It looks very strange.
I was going to play some cricket, but I can't.
This is in the way.
Hmm.
I wonder what it is.
It's looks like fruit.
I wonder if I could eat it.
No.
Hm.
Is it a flower?
Mmm.
Mmm.
It looks like it could easily break.
I'd better be careful with it.
Hmm.
I'll ask Sally.
She'll know.
Huh?
Oh
I've seen THEM before.
They fly like a bird but they're bit different.
They fly like this.
Well, sometime they're white, but there are other colours too.
Anyway.
Huh?
Oh.
What's that?
It's wriggling.
Oh.
Oh, and look at those dots on the leaf.
What are they?
Anyway.
Oh, Sally!
Hello.
Hi, everyone.
Oh.
Hi, everyone.
Would you like a drink?
Yes, but…hang on.
I've just seen the most unusual thing.
There's something on the branch of my tree.
You know when I play cricket, and I hit the ball?
Well, I went to hang it up, but there's something in the way.
It's very strange.
Mm.
Hang on.
Is it the size of your cricket bat?
How big is it?
No, no, it's…about this big.
Hm.
I wonder what it could be.
Never mind.
Would you like a drink?
Yes, please.
Hm.
Ooh.
Great.
Can I have a straw, please?
Hm.
Hm.
Oh!
Sally, I just remembered, I saw something else.
It looks like a bird.
It sort of flies like a bird, but it's a bit different.
It's got wings, and it's got some beautiful colours on them and flutters in the breeze.
Oh!
I know what you've seen.
You've seen a butterfly, and, I'm thinking that I might know what that strange thing is that you saw.
Once we've finished our drink, we can go and have a look.
Hang on, I've got more to tell you!
Oh.
As I was about to come through the door, I looked at the plant there, and I saw this thing wriggling around.
Oh!
Did you see anything else?
Yes, how did you know?
I saw on the leaf, all these little dot on it.
Well, now I know exactly what you saw.
What you saw was one kind of animal.
What?
No Sally, they were all different.
They weren't the same.
They couldn't be.
What you've seen Possum, is a life cycle.
You've seen the different stages of it.
It starts as a butterfly.
The butterfly then lays some eggs.
After the eggs have been laid, the life cycle continues.
They are different stages.
Oh.
Why don't we finish our drink, and then we can go outside and have a look?
I'm going to go and get the easel and we can draw the life cycle.
OK.
I'll go get my magnifying glass so I can have a look at them nice and close.
OK, let's go.
Let's go!
Quickly Sally, look!
Oh, wow!
That is so big!
Yeah.
I have never seen anything as big as that before.
This is the same as you Possum.
All other possums are small and you're a big possum.
This is meant to be a small thing, but it's so big!
Yeah.
How strange.
The life cycle of a butterfly starts at a certain point.
This is halfway through the life cycle.
How about I explain the whole thing to you?
So, is this a living thing?
Is something going to grow out of this?
Yes, it is a living thing Possum.
This is called a pupa.
Oh.
A caterpillar has come along and climbed up your tree, along the branch, and hung itself down, and then it's formed into a pupa, ready to grow into a butterfly, spread its wings, and fly away.
Oh!
It won't be a caterpillar any more.
Sally, could I do the same thing?
Can I wrap myself into a pupa and then come out as a beautiful butterfly?
Can I do that?
Oh, you're funny Possum.
Sadly, though, you can't.
Your life cycle isn't the same as butterfly's.
You're born as a baby possum but a butterfly is born from an egg.
Huh?
Sally, is that like a chicken?
Well, sort of…
A chicken can only lay one or two eggs.
A butterfly can lay many, many, many, tiny, little eggs.
Oh.
Alright.
Come on over here and I'll show you.
Oh, ok.
So, I'm going to draw the life cycle.
Right.
I'll draw this first.
OK.
Ooh.
OK!
Then once it's finished with that…
Butterfly!
Yes.
Great.
Butterfly.
Oh, great!
Hm?
Now, Possum. Can you show me where you saw the caterpillar?
Oh, over here.
Hm.
Oh.
Oh, look.
They are the butterfly eggs.
Oh!
And look.
Huh?
This is the pupa.
Right.
Now that's the appropriate size for a pupa.
The one on your tree is very strange.
Oh, ok.
Sally, those dots – are they butterfly eggs?
Yes, they are.
Butterflies are very clever.
They'll look for the right tree to lay their eggs on.
Oh!
They'll find a very safe leaf and then they'll lay their eggs and fly away.
Right.
And out of those eggs will pop a caterpillar.
Oh and the caterpillar will eat the leaves.
Sometimes they'll see vegetables and go and eat those.
Yeah.
Have you seen white butterflies?
Yep.
Well, white butterflies love to eat cabbage.
Oh.
Sally, those eggs are very small.
How big is a caterpillar?
How does it fit in there?
Well, it's like when you were born Possum.
You weren't born the big possum you are today.
You were just a little possum.
You've eaten lots and grown bigger.
The eggs are the same.
The caterpillar is very small when it pops out and it eats the leaves and it grows bigger and bigger and bigger.
Sally, can that caterpillar fly?
No.
All it can do is walk.
Oh, so that means that the other caterpillar was very clever.
It walked all the way up to my tree, and all the way up to the branch, and then created the pupa.
Yes, that's right.
Let's go back over here.
OK.
See, the butterfly lays the…?
The eggs!
That's right.
They're the eggs.
That's right.
Now, once that's done, what hatches out?
The caterpillar!
Yes, that's right.
Oh, that's a great caterpillar.
Yes and this is the life cycle of a butterfly.
This is how it works.
See?
Isn't that great?
Yeah.
Why don't we watch some children learning about butterflies?
Oh, yeah.
There's a very special place they go to.
Let's watch.
Oh.
Oh.
That was great!
So interesting.
Yeah, that WAS great.
Oh, I loved watching those butterflies and all the different colours and patterns.
It was so good!
Oh, yes, it's amazing.
The symmetry of the wings – they're identical.
Nothing is different.
They're beautiful.
It's almost like folding a piece of paper in half.
They're symmetrical.
Oh, I can remember when I had to fold that piece of paper to make my paper aeroplane.
Oh, it had to be folded just right, and if it wasn't, it would have crashed.
That's right, it's just like that.
Oh, I get it now.
That's fantastic.
Shall we have a look?
Yeah.
Where is it now?
Oh, there it is.
Hmm.
Do you remember when you drank your drink through a straw?
You were like the butterfly.
What?
Me?
No!
Ha-ha!
I'm not a butterfly.
No, you're right.
You don't look like a butterfly at all.
Yeah but, could you imagine if you had a nice curly bendy straw…
Yeah.
Well, on the butterfly's head, they have a proboscis and that is like a curly, bendy straw and if the butterfly sees a lovely flower with nectar in it, they land on it and have a drink.
It's like the nectar that bees love.
They drink it by sucking it up through their proboscis and then…they fly away.
Oh.
I should get a straw and suck the nectar from a flower too and then I could become a butterfly.
Oh!
You are funny.
I can't imagine you flying around like a big butterfly.
You'd be the biggest butterfly in the world.
Sally, look!
Ooh!
Wow.
Oh, look.
Oh!
Oh!
Oh!
Oh!
Oh!
Oh, wow, that was a beautiful butterfly.
That would have to be the world's biggest butterfly.
Yes!
Oh Sally, thank you so much for teaching me about butterflies and pupas and caterpillars and eggs and caterpillars are nice too.
That's right.
Caterpillars ARE nice.
Until they eat my vegetables!
Well, our time is up.
Thanks for watching.
See you next time.
Bye!
Bye!
Oh, look!
Look, it's back.
Oh.
Oh, wow.
Oh!