Our local Nursery school, like many schools around the country, has a tankful of caterpillars chomping on leaves and sipping nectar. They're getting reday for turning into chrysalis and eventually butterflies.

This of course is a wonderful activity for Roamer.

The children can program Roamer caterpillar to move round its life cycle drawn on the floor or using Roamer mats. At each new stage of development Roamer puts on its new jacket previously designed and made by the children.

As you can see here pupils as young as 3 can enjoy turning Roamer into a butterfly.

Once all your Roamer caterpillars have metamorphosed into butterflies they of course need to fly from flower to flower:

Place 6 large paper flowers randomly on the floor each numbered 1 - 6. Pupils throw a dice to see which flower Roamer needs to go to. They then have to program the butterfly to "fly" there. This involves turning the right amount and direction and correctly estimating distance.

For younger children the flowers can be placed on a number line (the Roamer mats are ideal for this) to avoid the need to turn. Then they just go up and down the number line visiting the flowers. This of course is also the basis of addition and subtraction.

And for your literacy hour there is always "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".

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