Monarchs

After cleaning its container, holding the caterpillar was fun! Students raised and released monarchs in class.  We received monarch eggs from the University of Minnesota and began feeding them milkweed leaves as soon as they hatched from the egg.  Each student Enjoying a newly emerged monarch before it flies away. was responsible for caring for one caterpillar from newly hatched larva through the chrysalis which is the pupal stage, and then to the adult monarch butterfly.  Students journaled about the changes Kissing a monarch goodbye to wish it a safe migration! in their monarch as it ate, grew and molted.  They observed the J-caterpillar before it became a chrysalis and observed newly emerging adult monarchs.  They graphed the number of chrysalises A male monarch. each day and the number of emerged males and females.  Students learned to differentiate between male and female monarch butterflies.  They created an herbarium page of the monarch's only food A female monarch. source as a caterpillar - the milkweed plant.  Students wrote about their observations and feelings throughout the life cycle of the monarch.  We then released the monarchs in the school courtyard.  Releasing monarchs. Some of them we saw fly away and begin their migration to Mexico, and some of them rested on flowers in the sun before they flew away.  Then students learned about the monarch migration from Reba Releasing monarchs. Batalden, a scientist at the University of Minnesota, who is working with our classroom this year.  She had just returned from Texas and showed students pictures of migrating monarchs.  Students Being silly with monarchs. worked with a map to learn the states, rivers and mountain ranges the monarchs would encounter on their migration.  This experience offered many opportunities to integrate science into all subject areas.

Image Gallery: Monarchs in our classroom.

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