Third grade students used claymation techniques to create these short movies. They discussed the stages of butterfly metamorphosis and planned their movies.
	Next, they created the background then started forming the eggs out of clay. For each of the ninety different pictures that make up the animations, they changed the clay figures just a bit and moved them around the scenery. Then they took a still picture.
After the images were all captured digitally, they used Spin Photo Objects software in order to pull it into two different movies.

These movies are in the Quicktime format. If you do not have the Quicktime plugin loaded in your browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer) you can download it from http://www.apple.com.

In the first movie, butterfly larva (caterpillars) hatch out of the eggs. They shed their larval skin. After attaching themselves under a leaf or branch, they form their chrysalis. The chrysalis becomes bigger and bigger.

In the second movie, the chrysalis continues to grow until the butterfly inside is ready to hatch. The shell of the chrysalis breaks apart and the butterfly, with its wings wrapped up tight, emerges. It flaps its wings to dry them off and then flies away.