Hosting Monarch Butterflies
By Therese Fitzpatrick, February 27, 2017
Grade Level
- Elementary School
Category
- Summer Design Institute
Subject Area
- Language Arts
- Mathematics
- Science
- Social Studies
Lesson Time
Fitzpatrick_Hosting Monarch Butterflies
Introduction
Insects and life cycles are a large component of the first-grade science curriculum. Cause and Effect are a major focus in the first grade ELA curriculum. This lesson includes looking at the monarch butterfly, their life cycle, needs, migration and the concern among the scientific community for the recent decline in the population. The students design challenge will be, “How might we positively affect the monarchs?”
National Standards
CCSS
RIT.1 Ask and answer questions about detail in a text.
RIT.2 Identify and retell the main topic of the text.
RIT.3 Describe connections between people, events, ideas and information.
RIT.4 Clarify meaning of word/phrases by asking and answering questions.
RIT.7 Use illustration to describe key ideas.
W.1 Write opinion piece with the topic/into a sentence, detail sentences, and a closing sentence.
W.2 Write explanatory topic with an intro, details, and closure.
SL.1 Listen to others, take turns speaking, add to the conversation by responding to others dialog.
SL.2 Ask and answer questions about details in presentation.
SL.4 Express ideas/feeling in describing nouns/events
SL.6 Speak in complete sentences.
MD.4 Organize and explain data on a graph. Use date to the graph to answer questions. Compare data on a graph using more or less than.
Objectives
Students will be able to identify the monarch butterflies’ life cycle.
Students will be able to identify milkweed as a need for monarchs to survival.
Students will be able to explain the connection to a lack of milkweed and the low numbers of monarch butterflies.
Students will be able to state and explain that humans (our class) can change this the environment.
Students will be able to record and graph monarch sightings in our courtyard garden and compare that number to the number or monarchs in our garden before milkweed was planted.
Resources
Passage with facts on the declining numbers of butterflies:
http://www.readworks.org/passages/protecting-butterflies (This is the passage used within in lesson two.)
-Art:
http://buggyandbuddy.com/monarch-butterfly-symmetry-art-for-kids/
-Butterfly word-search by Kathy Ryan on teacherspayteachers.com. Kathy Ryan used images with the vocabulary words, which is helpful for young learners.
©KathyRyan2014h.p:///www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kathy-°©‐Ryan
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/monarch-butterfly/
http://www.monarch-
Books:
Monarch Butterfly
by Gail Gibbons
How to Raise Monarch Butterflies: A Step-by-Step Guide for Kids
by Carol Pasternak
Monarch Magic!: Butterfly Activities & Nature Discoveries
by Lynn Rosenblatt
Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons
Materials
- small space on the school campus i.e.: planters or actual ground (area to redesign)
- milkweed plants
- milkweed seeds
- caterpillar/s to observe the monarch life cycle, mesh enclosure or large glass case for the caterpillar to complete a life cycle in the classroom.
- books with images and text on monarchs, see list above.
- paper or ”science” notebooks for sketching designs.
-books from classroom library, public library, and school library.
-word search
Vocabulary
Cause: Why something happens
Effect: What happens
Migrate: verb, move from one region or habitat to another when the seasons change.
Life cycle: repeating life stages of an organism starting with birth and going to adulthood and back to birth.
Monarch: The monarch butterfly is an orange and black milkweed butterfly
Milkweed: a common plant that butterflies depend on to survive
Persuade: convince someone to believe your thoughts or to act in a way you want.
Design: creation, plan, convention to change for the better
Prototype: one of many first attempts to make or improve on an idea or functional thing.
Caterpillar: larva stage of butterfly or moth
Pupa/chrysalis: the inactive immature stage of a butterfly or moth between a larva and an adult
Butterfly: part of a class of insects with brightly colored wings, going through metamorphosis.
Ecosystem: the community of living organisms and the non-living things in a certain space.
Habitat: the area where an animal/s or human/s live where there is food, water, shelter and mates to sustain the species
Sustainable: ecosystem that can endure
Metamorphosis: complete change from birth to adult i.e. egg, caterpillar, pupa, butterfly.
Procedures
Lesson one: Introducing Monarchs
30 minutes.
In a whole group setting, use an anticipatory set: Bring in a caterpillar inside a suitable container to have students make observations and a KWL chart about what kind of caterpillar it is and how does is live? 20 minutes
Read a simple book about Monarchs students take notes. 20 minutes
Lesson two: Defining the Problem
45 minutes.
In small groups with the teacher, first grades will read a passage with facts about the monarch butterfly’s life cycle, the migration patterns, and the declining numbers of monarch butterflies. While reading, students will highlight important facts. After completing the passage, pairs of twos or threes will take their facts and write a piece with a topic sentence, at least, three detail sentences and one close sentence.
While small groups are with the teacher reading, other groups would be at the following stations.
1.Draw and record observations on classroom caterpillar in the room.
- Make a butterfly art project see resources below. (A parent assistant would be helpful.)
- Read classroom books on Butterflies or other insects or write a book on Monarchs with someone in the small group using facts from a book.
- Students may write a poem on butterflies or memorize one with a partner. Here are two examples. Make posters of examples to hang in the class for students to view.
- Have a butterfly word search as a “can do” if students finish at their stations before you switch teams. (See resources.)
Assessment
Formative assessments will be used by teacher observation in the research and design phases and with discussion to ensure students are following the unit. Summative assessments will be taken from the letters that students write to their principal and the Commissioner at City Park. A rubric will be used to check Language mechanics and to check relevant facts used to persuade the recipients.
Enrichment Extension Activities
Students will be encouraged to research for other butterflies that travel and live in the Louisiana area.
i.e. Golf fritillary.
After the lesson is complete students will be asked to reflect on, how might we continue this project and what other problems can we research to solve?
Making a blog of the project would also serve as a connection to the public as in information piece but could also spur collaboration from outside the classroom.
Teacher Reflection
We have not completed the unit.
Other ideas: This could be a project for any grade or city. There are many animals that we live with that are adversely affected by our lifestyles. Birds, for example, have to find food and shelter in cityscapes. Cornell University gives away bird watching kits with mini binoculars students are asked to be an observational scientist and to record the number of birds they see the university collects the data and shares it on their website. www.birds.cornell.edu/ I have done some Project Based learning with Birds and Cornell’s resources. Perhaps birds could be used this with a design lesson.
Bees are also making the news for the colony-collapsing syndrome.
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