Monarchs at school

Thanks to strong support by the Wallenpaupack Primary School and a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), our Butterfly Barn Nature Center conducted a monarch butterfly workshop on September 27 for the school’s 10 first-grade teachers and its two science teachers. With DEP grant money we obtained books, posters and hand lenses for classroom teachers, and several microscopes, including a digital one, for the school’s two science rooms.

On October 3 we visited classrooms to explain why biologists tag autumn monarchs, and to show how this is done. Ten butterflies, one for each class, received tags, along with names suggested by the children. A robust female, tag number HJZ 278, was named “Faith,” and other monarchs, which later soared off with her, were styled “Lightning,” “Chance,” and so on.

We carefully record the tag numbers, so I’m hoping that next spring Wallenpaupack primary children will learn that one of their monarch friends was discovered in central Mexico.