Caterpillar Minibeast Adventure with Jess

BIRDS TWEET

Hello, adventurers! I'm Jess!

It's time for a minibeast adventure!

# Feelers out, what's about?

# Creeping, sleeping

# Under stones, here and there

# Nesting, resting

# Minibeasts are everywhere

# Minibeasts are everywhere

# Look and listen, stop and stare

# Minibeasts are everywhere

# A minibeast adventure!

# Feelers out, what's about?

# Minibeasts are everywhere

# Look and listen, stop and stare

# Mini worlds for us to share

# A minibeasts adventure! #

With Jess!

Welcome to my tree house!

I've got something really interesting to show you.

Have a look at these.

They're eggs!

Most minibeasts come from eggs.

These ones were laid by a butterfly.

But the fascinating thing is that when these hatch,

they won't be butterflies - not just yet.

They'll be something else. Do you know what?

Have a look in here.

Do you know what that is on the leaf?

Yes, it's a caterpillar!

And here's another one.

Look at its beautiful colours.

Caterpillars are eating machines.

They eat and eat and eat as much as they can. That's their job -

to grow bigger and bigger and bigger.

Let's have a closer look.

Here's a caterpillar busily eating away.

Caterpillars have only six legs. It looks like they have many more,

but the extra ones aren't legs at all -

they're just little hooks to hold onto the leaves.

A caterpillar crawls around, munching and munching

and getting bigger and bigger.

Look! Here's one that's just a few days old.

And next to it is one that's two weeks old.

Look how much it's grown!

But they're not fully grown-up even then.

Because that's when something really magical happens.

They wrap themselves up for a big sleep,

and when they wake up, they're a butterfly!

I've got two sleeping here.

It looks a bit like a caterpillar in a sleeping bag, doesn't it?

It's called a chrysalis,

and when it wakes up, it will be a beautiful butterfly.

There will almost certainly be a caterpillar living near you.

Shall we go and find one?

Come on!

Whatever the weather, we're off together on a minibeast adventure!

-Hi, Lulia. Hi, Lohat!

-BOTH: Hi, Jess.

Great to see you! Today, we're going on a caterpillar adventure!

-Have you ever seen a caterpillar before?

-Uh-uh.

No? Where do you think we might find one around here?

-What about down there?

-Yeah.

-Great! Get your feelers ready, then.

THEY GIGGLE

Feelers out -

what's about?!

We're off on a minibeast adventure! Come on!

I think there's some leaves having holes in it.

Oh, yeah! Look here, too!

So, what do you think has been here?

-Caterpillars.

-Could be caterpillars, couldn't it?

Something's been eating them.

-Maybe a butterfly!

-If we look really carefully...

-Maybe a butterfly,

when he was eating the leaves, and then he laid his egg.

Do you know what? I think that's exactly what happened...

Maybe that's a cocoon.

A cocoon? Where?!

-There.

-Maybe, she says.

-That does look a little bit like a cocoon.

-Yeah.

-Actually, that's just a rolled-up old leaf,

but that is exactly what cocoons are supposed to look like.

-Let's have a look at these ones.

-Found a caterpillar.

-Where?

Oh, my goodness - yes, you have!

Caterpillar!

Wow! Isn't that amazing?!

It's, like, yellow.

Yes, it's got a yellow head, and what colour is its body?

-Green.

-Green.

-Green! Very...

-Look at the colour...

-Let me hold him.

-What you like to hold it, Lohat?

-Yeah.

We have to be very, very careful.

Because he might eat us?

No, not because he might hurt you -

because YOU might hurt HIM!

-Because minibeasts are very, very small...

-Don't want to hurt him!

I just want to touch it, but not hold it.

Are you scared, Lohat?

If he was trying to eat me.

Agh! He wriggled his face!

-He wriggled his face!

-He's wriggly and wobbly.

He's very wriggly and wobbly, isn't he?!

-I want to hold it.

-OK.

-Does it hurt you?

-It doesn't... It tickles a bit.

-Is he eating you?

-No!

Caterpillars don't eat people. What do caterpillars eat?

-Leaves.

-What happens when it gets to the edge of your fingers?

-He might fall off.

-But he doesn't fall off.

Why doesn't he fall off? What does he do?

Because he can crawl...over.

Yeah! He can go upside down and sideways -

-he can hold on really well, can't he?

-Mmm.

Now we've had a really good look at him, what do you think we should do?

-Put him back.

-Put him on a leaf.

-Let him eat.

He's probably hungry, isn't he? Shall we put him on this one here?

Yeah.

Bye-bye, caterpillar!

Bye!

When you wake up in the morning,

you look the same as you did when you went to bed.

OWL HOOTS

But when a caterpillar goes to sleep, it changes into a butterfly.

Imagine if that happened to you!

Wow!

Hu-huh!

We've discovered that caterpillars love to eat and eat,

and one plant that lots of caterpillars like to eat

are nasturtiums, so I thought we could plant some nasturtiums for you

to put on your balcony, to see if we can attract any caterpillars.

-Would you like to do that?

-Yep.

-Yeah.

Here, you have a pot, and you have a pot, Lulia.

-And you're going to put that in?

-No, you are. With these trowels.

-Think you can do that?

-Mmm...

Yeah, that's good.

Can you scoop all of that? Excellent, very good.

Is that enough?

Yeah, I think that looks great.

Now, these seeds here

are seeds that I got from my nasturtium plant at home.

Can you make three holes to put your seeds in?

-One...

-Brilliant!

-..two, three.

So, here's one.

Here's one for you.

-Another one?

-Mm-hm.

Here you go.

And the last one for Lulia.

Now, cover those over. What do we need to do now we've planted these?

-Water them.

-Water them, yes! So, here you go.

You have a watering can there.

Give them a little bit of water. That's it.

Excellent! And I'm going to give you

this nasturtium as well, for your balcony -

this is one that I planted.

Do you think caterpillars will come?

I need to wash my hands.

JESS LAUGHS

That was a lovely minibeast adventure.

I hope Lulia and Lohat's flowers grow

and attract lots of butterflies and caterpillars.

How are MY caterpillars doing?

Looks like they're still hungry!

Maybe you could go on a caterpillar adventure, too?

Look for leaves with lots of holes in them -

that's a great clue that there's some caterpillars nearby.

Feelers out, what's about?

Happy hunting, adventurers!