• About WordPress
    • WordPress.org
    • Documentation
    • Support
    • Feedback
  • Notifications
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The BEarth Institute

Home of the First Online Waldorf Curriculum – Since 1994

Header Right

  • Members
    • Login
    • Quick Curriculum Access
    • Quick Lifetime Member Access
    • My Account
    • My Orders
    • My Wishlist
  • FAQ
    • FAQs
    • Earthschooling Facts
  • Wishlists
  • Cart0
  • Home
    • Earthschooling
    • The Avicenna Institute
    • Photography
    • Waldorf Books
    • Newsletters
  • Waldorf Books
        • Waldorf Books By General Subject
          • Anthroposophy
          • Art Books
          • Bio-Dynamic Farming
          • Books for Learning Challenges
          • Books in German
          • Books in Spanish
          • By Rudolf Steiner
          • Circle Time & Music Books
          • Craft & Handwork Books
          • Curriculum Guides
          • Early Childhood Books
          • Early Readers
          • European Stories
          • Eurythmy
          • Form Drawing
          • Gentle Board Books
          • Gift Books
          • Inner Work
          • Movement Books
          • Native American Books
          • Natural Therapies
          • Nourishing Foods
          • Parenting
          • Passages
          • Picture Books
          • Seasonal & Festival Books
          • Teaching
          • Waldorf in the City
          • Waldorf Schools
          • Journey of Analise
        • Waldorf Books By Grade
          • Early Childhood
          • First Grade
          • Second Grade
          • Third Grade
          • Fourth Grade
          • Fifth Grade
          • Sixth Grade
          • Seventh Grade
          • Eighth Grade
          • High School
        • Waldorf Books By School Subject
          • Creative Arts
          • Form Drawing
          • Eurythmy
          • Geography
          • History
          • Language
          • Math
          • Physical Education
          • Science
        • More Book Categories
          • Celebrating Diversity
          • Golden Beetle Books
          • Reading Lists by Grade
          • Create Your Own Curriculum!
          • Favorite Authors
          • Digital Editions
          • Imperfect Books
          • Student Text Books
  • Shop
        • All Shop Categories
        • Schools Click Here
        • Waldorf Books
        • Photography
        • Curriculum By Grade
          • Preschool
          • Kindergarten
          • First Grade
          • Second Grade
          • Third Grade
          • Fourth Grade
          • Fifth Grade
          • Sixth Grade
          • Seventh Grade
          • Eighth Grade
          • Ninth Grade
          • Tenth Grade
          • Eleventh Grade
          • Twelfth Grade
          • High School
        • Curriculum by Category
          • All Categories
          • Curriculum Packages
            • Core Curriculum Bundles
            • Curriculum Packages
            • Living Lessons Curriculum
            • Family - Lifetime Package
            • School Purchases
            • Photography Class
            • Kids Can Heal
            • Wildlife Education
          • Monthly Curriculum
            • Preschool
            • Kindergarten
            • First Grade
            • Second Grade
            • Third Grade
            • Fourth Grade
            • Fifth Grade
            • Sixth Grade
            • Seventh Grade
            • Eighth Grade
          • Lesson Blocks
            • Blocks By Subject
            • First Grade
            • Second Grade
            • Third Grade
            • Fourth Grade
            • Fifth Grade
            • Sixth Grade
            • Seventh Grade
            • Eighth Grade
        • Waldorf Parent/Teacher Tutorials
          • Complete Teacher Support Package
          • Eurythmy
          • Watercolor Tutorials
          • Chalk Tutorials
          • Block Crayon Instruction
          • Handwork & Art
          • Music Tutorials
          • Teaching the Main Lesson
          • Pedagogy
          • The Temperaments
          • Consulting
        • Naturopathic Courses
          • Naturopathic Series
          • Unani Tibb
          • Audit Classes
          • Naturopathic Co-ops
          • Naturopathic Payment Plans
          • Well-Being Consults
  • Members
        • Login
        • Quick Curriculum Access
        • Quick Lifetime Member Access
        • Earthschooling Members
        • Naturopathic Students
          • Student Connections
            • Student Forum
            • NEW Student Blog
            • Student Newsletters
            • Student Yahoogroup
        • Packages & Blocks
          • Individual Living Lessons
            • Second Grade Math Living Lessons
            • Fourth Grade Human & Animal
            • Fourth Grade Norse Mythology
            • Fourth Grade Math Block
            • Fifth Grade Living Lessons Math Block
            • Fifth Grade LL: Ancient India
            • Sixth Grade LL: Geometry
            • Seventh Grade LL: Math
          • French Classes
            • Autumn French Classes
          • Music Classes
            • Circle Time Pre-KG
            • Circle Time First Grade
            • Ukulele Classes
          • Eurythmy Classes
            • Eurythmy by Grade
          • Handwork & Art Classes
          • Math, Language & Form
          • Waldorf Foundations
  • About
    • Newsletters
    • About
    • Contact Us
    • Testimonials
    • Giving Back
    • Our Team
    • Earthschooling Facts
    • FAQs
    • Purchase & Privacy
  • Blog
    • Public Blog
    • WaldorfBooks.com Blog
    • Avicenna Institute Student Blog
  • Free
    • Newsletters
    • Free Curriculum Samples
    • Overview
    • #Earthschooling365
    • Temperaments
    • Articles
    • Waldorf 101
    • Reading Lists
  • Join
    • Newsletters
    • Schools
    • Affiliate Area
    • Members
    • Partners
    • Scholarships
    • Staff
  • Legal Resources & Services
  • Curriculum Member
  • Earthschooling Member Forum
  • Member Yahoogroup
  • Accreditation Page
You are here: Home / Uncategorized / Save Monarch Butterflies with Fun Educational Activities

Save Monarch Butterflies with Fun Educational Activities

By thebearthinstitute Leave a Comment

Biology, botany, gardening, farming, conservation, civics, entomology, math, science, language, art and history – that is what children will be learning this summer while engaging in these fun monarch-focused activities. However, they will be having so much fun they won’t realize how much they are learning.

I remember purchasing some bushes at a local nursery a few years ago. The staff assured me that butterflies would gather on them in the spring and summer and they certainly did. It was a beautiful sight.

But this year we are going beyond attracting butterflies.

We are participating in the Monarch Renewal Project and we are going to show you how you can participate too.

This is a simple and fun project anyone can participate in on a number of levels, is affordable and helps teach math, science, language, gardening, civics, biology, botany, and art. It also yields beautiful results. Who is not enchanted being surrounded by butterflies and flowers?

Did you know that Monarch butterflies are becoming endangered due to the pesticides and sprays used by homeowners and landowners?

The Monarch caterpillar belongs to a club of picky-eaters and is only able to survive on Milkweed plant. Unfortunately, most people do not feel milkweed is a beautiful plant. Farmers, landowners and homeowners kill the plants by the hundreds of thousands each year. And if anyone had any doubts as to if they wanted the plant around or not – its name does it no favors. The name, MilkWEED pretty much ensures its relegation to the category of “evil plants”.

Although the Monarch butterfly itself enjoys a large number of flowering bushes and plants, their babies (caterpillars) have been dying in great numbers due to a shortage of milkweed. When they lay their eggs, they look for milkweed and when the little caterpillars hatch they nibble the soft new top leaves first and then, as their hunger increases, they make their way down to the larger leaves.

Imagine what happens when they hatch and there is no food for them.

To overcome this human-induced tragedy there are a number of organizations that are asking homeowners and landowners to participate in the Monarch Restoration Project.

The Earthshooling Wildife Education lessons include a full syllabus on how you can create a homeschooling unit from this project.

There are a few levels of participation you can choose from. I am listing them in order of time requirement and expense.

  1. Stop spraying milkweed and encourage others to do the same. Identify milkweek in your yard, neighborhood and nature trains and take steps to protect it by putting up signs.
  2. Plant a butterfly garden filled with milkweed and other plants that butterflies enjoy
  3. Order caterpillars online, raise and release them into your garden.
  4. Order caterpillars online, raise and release them into your garden, and keep some in captivity so you have more babies born to raise and release. Continue this Monarch breeding process as a project.

Then…

  1. Choose any item 1-4 and blog about what you are doing to encourage others to do the same
  2. Choose any item 1-4 and petition the city, neighbor, local farmer or business to allow you to create a butterfly habitat on their property too.
  3. Choose any item 1-4 and volunteer for public speaking engagements to educate others on how to participate. Libraries and summer camp programs love this activity!
  4. Choose any item 1-4 and volunteer to get a local school, co-op or homeschooling group involved together.

Together we can make a difference!

Our syllabus shows you what educational activities and exact projects you can do each step of the way. This blog post is a partial excerpt from that syllabus.

Yesterday we started out with a project from the syllabus. We are going to participate at level 4A. So today we started creating the habitat for our butterflies and caterpillars by planting a butterfly garden.

Planting a butterfly garden is not as intuitive or easy as it sounds. We are working with an organization that is helping restore Monarch habitat for the DNR. The inspiration for their cooperation with the DNR was when they discovered that all the milkweed seed they had planted had not survived.

So how can you ensure that your milkweed and other flowers survive?

  1. To start with you need to choose a plot of land that is flat with good drainage. Make sure there are no other plants growing there. We used the area where our pool was sitting for two years. The pool had killed everything on this plot so we were starting fresh.2015-05-13 17.33.45
  2. Secondly you need to gently rake the area smooth and make sure all garbage and any stray plants are pulled up. 2015-05-13 17.37.19You do not want to overturn the soil as this will encourage weed and plant growth from old species you do not want to survive on your new plot. This may also result in your seed being buried too deep, which is not ideal for the type of garden you are planting.
  3. Next, you will sprinkle the seeds over the area you have prepared. Remember – these are “weeds” and “wildflowers”. Typically these seeds are scattered by mammals, birds and the wind. By gently tossing these seeds over the ground you are mimicking that process. If you were to bury each one in the ground
    like you would for planting peas or potatoes this would result in poor growth of your butterfly garden.2015-05-13 17.34.02
  4. Next you will gently rake over the garden again (see video below). This will allow the seeds to settle gently in the ground – not too deeply but also not too close to the surface. The mistake made by the DNR was that they sprinkled the wildflower mix but did not rake over it so some species survived but others, like the milkweed, did not.
  5. Finally, you need to make sure your seedlings are well watered. We purposely planted our seeds on Thursday, May 14th, because we knew it would rain the next day. Natural rain watering is ideal, of course. However, you can also use a sprinkler.

Gently raking the garden for the final time after the seeds have been planted…

Butterflies Garden Final Raking (Click on link to see video)

If you want to follow along with our project by participating in one of many ways download the Monarch Syllabus today and get ready for an enchanting, inspiring, meaningful and fun summer project!

 

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Homeschooling, kindergarten, math, Nature, Parts, Preschool, Steiner, Waldorf, Waldorf 1st Grade Curriculum, Waldorf 2nd Grade Curriculum, Waldorf 3rd Grade, Waldorf 4th Grade, Waldorf Curriculum, Waldorf curriculum overview, Waldorf education books, Waldorf high school curriculum, Waldorf Homeschol Curriculum, Waldorf homeschool blog, Waldorf homeschool supplies, Waldorf Homeschooling, Waldorf Kindergarten Curriculum, Waldorf materials, Waldorf Preschool Curriculum, Whole

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Earthschooling

An Award Winning Curriculum...

Join Mailing List

The Waldorf Store

Golden Beetle Books Club

Waldorf Teacher Tutorials

Earthschooling Curriculum

Footer

Customer Service

  • My Wishlist
  • Shipping
  • FAQs
  • Earthschooling Facts
  • Contact Us
  • Member Help
    • Ask for Help
    • Tech Support
  • Privacy & Purchase Policy

Earthschooling Forum

Earthschooling Facebook Forum
Yahoo Groups Forum
Earthschooling Members Blog

Avicenna Institute Students

Facebook Forum
Yahoo Groups Student Forum
Student Blog

Newsletters

Check your inbox or spam folder now to confirm your subscription.


Check your inbox or spam folder now to confirm your subscription.


Check your inbox now to confirm your subscription.

Copyright © 2023 · The BEarth Institute Inc, Since 1994· Privacy Policy

Create a new list