Monarch Butterfly Milkweed Garden

By:

Saratoga Independent School

Monarch Butterfly Milkweed Garden

All Students Grades K-6

A report published by the World Wildlife Fund  (http://worldwildlife.org/stories/monarch-butterfly-survey-indicates-lowest-numbers-in-20-years & http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/14/science/earth/monarch-migration-plunges-to-lowest-level-in-decades.html) has documented a 59 percent decline in monarch butterfly populations this year.  A large contributing factor is the increased use of pesticides and herbicides which kill milkweed plants. Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed, which is the only food their caterpillars eat.  
 

Our K-6 students planted approximately 50 milkweed seeds which we will eventually transplant into a designated milkweed garden as well as other spots around our property.  We are looking forward to helping the monarchs by adding these plants to our campus and providing them with a summer breeding habitat!

This project comes full circle as earlier in the fall, our students studied the life cycle and migration of the monarch butterfly and participated in Journey North's Symbolic Migration in which students created symbolic monarchs to accompany the actual monarchs on their journey south to Mexico.