Thematic Resource: Monarch Butterflies

Monarch Butterfly Thematic Resource Unit
Professional Development Resources for Educators by Midge Frazel
This thematic or interdisciplinary unit has been designed to assist teachers who are developing their own lessons to integrate technology and the power of the Web within their classrooms. This page is for teachers to amass knowledge, gather resources, construct activities, design projects and align their goals with national, state and district standards. Although the topic for this theme is science, there is a strong correlation to fiction and nonfiction literature. Web pages that can be used with students are included as well as links to higher order thinking activities such as interactive projects and WebQuests. Because teachers need to feel comfortable and confident users of the Web, this theme concentrates on resources to guide teachers with using the Web for their own professional growth.

Starting Out
Web Presentation: Monarch Butterfly Magic by Midge Frazel

Teaching and Learning with Monarch Butterflies
EIRC in New Jersey [The Monarch Teaching Network]

Background Knowledge for Educators
NatureWorks: One Page Sheet on Monarch Butterfly http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/monarch.htm	Journey North for Kids video clips of Monarch Butterflies here http://www.learner.org/jnorth/KidsJourneyNorth.html
Gather knowledge for your professional growth and use these to help you answer questions from your class.
Journey North's Facts about Monarchs	Monarch's Watch's Gulliver's Story Active Learning
Monarch Watch's Reading Room FAQs What do you already know?	Journey North's Monarch Butterfly Resources So much to learn!
Earth & Sky Interview about Monarch Migration	Cyberhunt: Migrating Monarchs
Standards First! National Science Standards Match these goals to your district's plan or frameworks K-4 Standards Link, 5-8 Standards Link (Grades 3-6), 5-8 Standards Links (Middle School) Useful Assessment Tasks for preparing your student rubrics Butterfly Life Cycle and Insect Classification Performance Package
The Big Three
Don't get information overload at these excellent resources! Excellent resources for rearing Monarchs as well as conservation and predation information.
Monarch Watch Everything you need to know about Monarch biology and conservation from the University of Kansas http://www.monarchwatch.org/
Monarchs in the Classroom (Monarch Lab) Especially for K-12 educators from an entomologist http://www.monarchlab.umn.edu
Journey North: Monarch Butterfly Migration Features yearly migration data, activities and project participation http://www.learner.org/jnorth/

Life Cycle \| Migration \| Activities \| Classroom Web Sites \| WebQuests and Projects
General Curriculum Resources \| Literature Connections \| Images \| Advanced Topics

Life Cycle and Metamorphosis Resources
Mesquite Texas Monarch Butterfly Web Resource Page Quicktime Movies and a project chart created with Inspiration are featured here.	Milkweed Mania http://homepage.mac.com/cohora/nat/mon.html Great habitat information
Life Cycle Diagram	Life Cycle Resources from Monarch Watch
Life Cycle Concept Map Use this as a "what's wrong with this diagram?"activity from the Kidspiration Web Site (I didn't create this.) Thanks to Linda Bryson for emailing me about this!	Determining the Sex of Monarchs Male and Female Monarch Butterflies
Label the Anatomy Diagrams Butterfly, Caterpillar, Simpler Caterpillar Caterpillar Anatomy Diagram to Print	The Emergence of a Monarch My favorite photograph essay by Dale McClung (Florida Monarchs)

Migration Resources
Nature's Alien Empire: Monarch Migration Read the text of this Web page, then click on the Presentation: Monarch Butterfly needs Flash or Shockwave installed
Monarch Watch: Migration and Tagging Monarch Watch: Overwintering	Global Distribution of Monarch Butterflies with References
Journey North's Today's News Learn about the current and archived migration Tick-Tock Biological Clock	Journey North's Symbolic Butterfly Migration Participate in a collaborative project by sending paper butterflies to Mexico
Monarchs and Migration Science Museum of Minnesota	Paper Butterfly Templates Outline Format or Transparent Wings

Activities to Explore
Monarch Butterfly Optical Illusion Thinking Fountain: Science Museum of MN	Monarch Butterfly Symmetry Activity Thinking Fountain: Science Museum of MN
Monarch Butterfly Symmetry Printable

Classroom Web Sites

The Texas Monarch Project
Middle and High School Resources

Victoria Christian School
Victoria, Texas

WebQuests and Projects
WebQuest: Monarch Butterflies 1st Grade
Butterfly WebQuest	Monarch Butterfly WebQuest by L. Gail A. Wingfield (WebQuest for grades 3-12)
The Migration of the Monarch Butterfly WebQuest by Kiva Duckworth	Flying Toward Survival by Yvette Mass

General Curriculum Resources
Lesson Plans on Monarch Research Grades K-2 and 3-6 and High School	Creature of the Month one page summary
Enchanted Learning's Monarch Butterfly Page Easy to follow for younger students	Lesson Exchange: Monarch Butterflies
Mystery of the Monarchs Good one page article with photos	The Life of a Monarch Butterfly Ideas for a Scavenger hunt
Monarch Watch Season Summaries needs Adobe Acrobat Reader	Monarch Butterfly Facts Page
Monarch Lab: Lesson and Research Ideas	Monarch Watch: Vocabulary and Terms

Literature Connections
Monarchs (A Gulliver Green Book) Kathryn Lasky and Christopher Knight Amazon.com ages 9-12	Gail Gibbons's Monarch Butterfly Amazon.com's ages 4-8 Gotta Go Gotta Go! by Sam Swope Amazon.com ages 4-8
An Extraordinary Life : The Story of a Monarch Butterfly Laurence Pringle and Bob Marstall Amazon.com ages 9-12
My Monarch Journal Parent-Teacher Edition Connie Muther and Anita Bibeau	Four Wings and a Prayer Sue Halpern Amazon.com Adult
Monarch Watch's Classroom Bibliography	Monarch Watch: Classroom Essays

Images for Classroom Projects Ask permission of the owners of these images before using them in your classroom projects
Monarch Butterfly Metamorphosis Photos	Monarch Watch Image Gallery
Additional Resources of Interest
Milkweed Mania
The Milkweed Cafe	Whispering Wings Butterfly Farm Cohasset, MA
Advanced Topics
Tactics and Vectors: Migration	The Biogeography of the Monarch Butterfly
The Chincoteague Monarch Monitoring Project	Article: Threats to Monarch Butterfly Population
Monarch Research Projects	Monarch Butterfly Orientation
Monarch Butterfly Parasite Control	Introduction to Predation
Conservation	Monarch Watch: Research Topics
Monarch Reproduction	Ecotourism
Ecological Interactions	Monarch Monitoring Project: Cape May, NJ
Milkweed and the Ozone	Butterfly Releases at Weddings Controversy

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Page created: 3/25/01 Last modified: 8/23/07	Graphic from IconBAZAAR LLC. Crawlies 'n' Critters http://www.iconbazaar.com/ animals/butrfly02.gif (3/26/01)
Butterfly Digital Photograph ©2001 Kathleen Wasik	Class: Insecta Order: Lepidoptera Family: Danaidae Genus: Danaus Species: Danaus plexippus
Please note that that the links on this page and on other pages from my site are links to already existing pages. I have no control over them and I am not responsible for the information that they contain. Use the information wisely, please.
Midge Frazel midgef@midgefrazel.net P.O. Box 159 Bridgewater, MA 02324	Comments, suggestions and additional resources are welcome!
http://www.midgefrazel.net/monarchtheme.html