El Proyecto De Las Mariposas: Symbolic Monarch Migration with Sra. Ovalle

In the fall, Lower School Spanish Teacher Claudia Ovalle guides her students through the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly. Since early September, Lower School Spanish classes have been observing the entire metamorphosis process — from egg to caterpillar, chrysalis, and finally, butterfly. Sra. Ovalle starts the process by looking for Monarch eggs and their food source, the milkweed plant, which grows here at school, thanks to the help of S.A.I.L. Teacher Betsey Holland.

 

In addition to this hands-on experience, our students in Grades 2-4 are participating in the Symbolic Monarch Migration, organized by Journey North. This organization works to help conserve Monarch butterflies and raise awareness about their migration to Mexico. As part of the program, each student decorates a small paper butterfly and includes a few personal details such as their name, grade, and favorite color. Each class also collaborates to create one large butterfly, which becomes a "Hola Amigos" class letter. All of these are sent together in an envelope to Journey North, which then distributes them to schools in Mexico participating in the same project.

 

In the spring, when the Monarch butterflies return to the United States and Canada, our students will receive symbolic butterflies and letters from children in Mexico. It's always exciting for them to see this exchange come full circle, connecting their classroom learning to a real-life migration that occurs across borders. With the younger students, classes focus on understanding the Monarch's journey to Mexico and back, and on appreciating the beauty and wonder of this natural process. With her Grade 3 and 4 students, Sra. Ovalle extends the lessons to include more about migration, going further into depth about the process.

 

“This project has become one of my favorites because I see the students' faces filled with surprise as they wait to see the butterfly. It's exciting, meaningful, educational, and helps our students feel part of something larger, both scientifically and culturally,” says Sra. Ovalle, speaking about the project. The impact of this work isn’t lost on her students either. “I’m so excited that we get to send our projects back and forth to Mexico, it’s going to be so cool to do this from so far away. Everyone helped each other out with the coloring, too!” said Grade 4 student Teddy W. Eliza B. agreed with him, speaking about how special the exchange was to her class. “It’s crazy that they go so far even though they’re so little!” she added. Projects like this foster deep connections between students and the world around them.