Our Monarchs

If you have been following our twitter feed you saw that last week we received two monarch butterfly caterpillars and one chrysalis. On Thursday, our chrysalis opened up to reveal a beautiful orange and black butterfly. We tagged her and set her free. We tagged her because we are helping the Montreal Insectarium collect data about how far she migrates and where she goes. We have been learning tons about butterflies through observation and read-alouds. N.P. wondered why Monarch chrysalis have gold on them. We searched all our book but had to turn to an expert who answers questions online. Turns out the gold may be for camouflage or to ward off predators (scientists aren't sure). Throughout the next few weeks we will free our last two Monarchs. Thank you to N.P., L.T. and M.M. who helped me create this pic collage about our butterfly adventure.