M is for March and Monarch! Start with the Hungry Caterpillar and lead into the migration of the Monarch Butterfly. Students receive comprehensible input, connections to science, and community service.
Our opening routine includes the song of the week. I use a days of the week song because the story, The Hungry Caterpillar, takes place over the course of a week and provides the sequence for the story. You could also start with one of the butterfly songs at the end of this post, but that would be giving away the ending!
Here are links to the books on Amazon.com. Look for La chenille qui fait des trous in French,
and La Oruga Muy Hambrienta in Spanish.
There are some Youtube videos available.
For French, I use a Youtube video with second graders reading the story, C’est adorable!
I like this one on Vimeo also.
I don’t like to reinvent the wheel when I start a unit, so I always look at the Teachers Pay Teachers website to see what is already available. These are awesome resources from Teacherspayteachers.com.
Here is one in French, I like this for the graphics. I laminated them for story retells and group relays.
Included in the French purchase is an alternative story called The Hungry Caterpillar Eats Paris. In this version, the caterpillar eats un croissant, deux crêpes, trois baguettes, quatre quiches and so on. This could be adapted using the foods from any culture. The students could also create stories following the pattern: use any thing, that eats any items, in increasing quantities each day, and then turns into something else!
Here are a couple of powerpoints in French. This one chenille and this one hungry-caterpillar. Here are a couple in Spanish I have saved over the years, oruga and orugahambrienta. There are so many resources and activities on my pinterest pages.
I attended an awesome ACTFL session on the Monarch Butterfly, at 8:00 am on Saturday morning, but it was worth it! It was presented by Beth McCammon Feldman. Check out her presentation handouts here Beth McCammonFeldman Journey North. For lots of resources in English and Spanish check out the Journey North website. There are videos and booklits you can print out.
Monarch butterflies cross three countries: Canada, The United States, and Mexico. Monarch butterflies need just the right temperature and humidity. Monarchs can’t freeze, they need food and warmth for the winter. There are two mountain tops in Mexico that they like best. They arrive around El Dia de Los Muertos (Nov. 1st), the tourist season is February, and they depart in March. There are lots of videos and rich readings about what life is like in the butterfly sanctuaries, and the people who count and maintain records on the Monarchs at the Journey North website and on Youtube.
Unfortunately, the people who live in the butterfly sanctuaries are cutting down the trees the butterflies need for food and shade. The campesinos need wood for carts, watering troughs, ladders, houses, bathrooms, and heating food. There is a good video in Spanish explaining their point of view, have students list reasons from the video. http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarch/WoodDomesticGarat_video.html
There are other challenges to the Monarchs. They need 4-5 generations in one season to make the trip back to the US and Canada. The larva only eat milkweed. Milkweed is decreasing for Monarchs to lay eggs on due to growing cities and increased use of herbicides. Weather extremes, like cold in early spring or heavy rain in the fall, hurt the Monarch population. Students can research problems in US and Canada.
What are some possible solutions? Brainstorm with students, how could they get involved? Students could raise money to plant more trees in Mexico. Students could investigate alternative farming techniques. Students can create signs informing tourists of the problems for the sanctuaries, or design brochures for sanctuary guides to distribute. They can make storybooks for kids on butterflies. Students could debate the cost of tourism on the butterfly environment. Students could create infographs in the target language.
Students can volunteer to participate in the count. Report observations, check out Westernmonarchcount.org for materials. Students could create public service announcements in many languages.
Students could plant milkweed and plants that provide nector like asters that bloom in late fall. Limit mowing it allows wild flowers to grow and avoid pesticides.
World Language teachers can connect to science with a study of the life cycle of a butterfly. Draw the life cycle and label in target language. It would be fun to raise butterflies and release them and connect with others to post where they are seen.
Here is a unit template from Laura Terrill wikispaces on the Monarch, Laura Terrill The monarch unit. Here are some additional butterfly songs.
Add any more ideas here, please share this post with friends, and go plant some milkweed!
This is my first meme, I made it on memegenerator.net.