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Peabody TeachFor teachers and grown-ups

Caterpillar and butterfly timer

A free animated classroom timer: a caterpillar eating his way round a leaf, and he comes out a butterfly at zero. Any length, counting down or up, with the clock a small chip in the corner.

10:00

Keys: Space start or pause · R reset · ← → 30 seconds · 1 8 the presets · S next scene · U count up or down · C move or hide the clock · M sound · H hear the sound · F full screen

How to use it

  1. Press Start, or Space. The picture is the time: a caterpillar eating his way round a leaf, and he comes out a butterfly at zero.
  2. It opens at 10 minutes. Press a preset, or Custom to type a length such as 7:30; press U to count up to the time instead of down to zero.
  3. Press F to fill the screen, C to move or hide the clock chip, M for the sound and H to hear it first.

Ideas for class

  • Use it alongside a life-cycle lesson: the picture is the thing you are teaching.
  • Count the bites with a young class: eight bites, eight eighths of the time.
  • Put ten minutes on the board for independent work and let the change at the end be the reward.
  • Run it counting up while the leaf unfurls and the bites undo themselves.
  • Use it for a child who finds endings hard: nothing is lost at zero, something better arrives.

Related

Questions

Does the caterpillar change every time?

Yes. He eats the leaf bite by bite, wraps up in the last fifth, and comes out a butterfly when the time is up. Counting up he stays a caterpillar, because the leaf is growing back rather than being eaten.

Can I use it in a science lesson?

It is a timer with a life cycle drawn on it, not a lesson: it shows the stages in order but says nothing about how long a real one takes. Use it as the clock beside the lesson.

Will the caterpillar and butterfly timer keep the right time if I switch tabs?

Yes. The timer compares the clock when you pressed Start with the clock now, so a sleeping tab, a slow laptop or a dropped frame cannot make it drift, and the picture is drawn from the time rather than from its own speed.

Is it really free, and does it need an account?

Free, no account, no ads, and nothing about your class leaves the computer: the length, the picture and the direction live in the address after the # so you can bookmark or share them, and that part is never sent to us.

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