Butterflies!

We have actually been doing things in our classroom other than use iPads, although that is pretty much all I have been blogging about lately. In second grade we study life cycles. What better way to learn about life cycles than to study butterflies. I have always had a fascination with butterflies, so when I found out I was going to teach second grade this year, I got pretty excited about a butterfly unit.

It started when we got caterpillars in the mail, about two weeks ago. This is the second shipment of critters we have received this year (see previous post about our worms). They are painted lady caterpillars, and we have watched them grow. They ate and ate in their little cup, until they got huge and turned into chrysalises at the end of last week. I was glad all of the changing happened before the weekend, as the students (and me) were very excited to see the changes happening.

Meanwhile, we have been learning all about Monarch migration. This is one of those topics that the more I learn, the more questions I have. We have read a lot of books, and we regularly check out the Journey North website, which is amazing and has weekly updates. Here is it http://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/

After doing lots of learning, we had more questions, as well as things we wanted to share with other people. We decided to do a mini research project to teach others about Monarchs, with the goal to create a bulletin board. The students and I genereated questions, such as

• How can you tell male and female Monarchs apart?
• How long is a butterfly generation?
• What is the Monarch life cycle?
• Where do they go for the winter?
• and so on.

I partnered students up, and I created QR codes to websites I thought would be helpful to their research. They also used books we had in the classroom.

In less than an hour, most partners had done their research, typed up their finding on their iPads and inserted appropriate pictures, printed their work, and put it on the bulletin board. It looks pretty great, and the kids found some great information.

We have learned that the Monarch migration to Mexico saw the smallest number of Monarchs on record. Last summer's hot weather was not kind to the butterflies. We are trying to find ways in which we can help increase the Monarch numbers. One way is to plant milkweed, since that is the only food that Monarch caterpillars can eat. We hope to plant some at Keysor, and many students also said they want to ask their parents to plant some at home. We have been learning about geography and culture through the lens of the Monarch migration. It has been some truly engaging, cross-curricular learning.

In case you are wondering, our butterflies have not yet hatched from their chrysalises. We hope they will later this week or early next week (hopefully not over the weekend). Stay tuned for future updates on our butterflies.