The Butterfly Girl -- Saving the Monarch Butterfly:
The Butterfly Girl (aka Aislyn Woodcock -- my eldest 8-year-old daughter) adores and is passionate about the Monarch Butterfly. So much so, she did two presentations on the topic: one at Brownies, for her "Tell It" Badge in front of her entire troupe and the other at her grade 3/4 split class at school. Aislyn did most of the research, by reading books about butterflies, focusing on the Monarch Butterfly. She also surfed the internet, but found reading books was a lot easier and more enjoyable. Her teacher, M. Boutilier recorded her school presentation with his iPhone. The audio was not that great, so I edited it, to what it is now, but I still recommend you listen to it with earphones/buds though, as it still isn't that great.
I want to brag a bit:
Not many adults, never mind 8-year-old children, have the courage to do this. What is even more amazing is she wants to start a club here in Regina, educating people about the Monarch Butterfly.
Another piece of bragging I want to do is she went into Brownies this year, for the first time. (She was in dance previously). Though this is her first year, she has two badge sashes of Brownie Badges. By the end of Brownies this year, she will have earned all the regular badges in her Brownie book, plus a special interest badge. Because of her age, she is going into guides in the fall. She already has plans to earn each Girl Guide badge she possibly can earn. She wants to continue all the way through the Guiding program and beyond. Though she is only eight, (for now anyway), she has decided she wants to become a lepidopterologist, focusing on butterflies, specializing on the Monarch Butterfly.
Below is the text of her presentation, if you want to read and follow along:
I love butterflies because they are cool and look pretty. There are many neat things about butterflies. The butterfly is called papillon in French and mariposa in Spanish. Butterflies have overlapping, different colours of scales on their wings. If butterflies get too cold or wet, they cannot fly. Butterflies have been around since the dinosaurs.
I really like monarch butterflies because of their orange and black wing pattern. There are rare white monarch butterflies too. One female can lay 400 eggs but only one egg per leaf. Monarch
caterpillars only eat milkweed. Milkweed is poisonous to birds and animals. Birds can get sick from eating monarch caterpillars and adult monarch butterflies. Some animals eat the monarch butterfly like orioles, grosbeaks, jays, mice, fire ants, and spiders. Viceroy butterflies have colouring like the monarch butterfly to make animals think they taste bad too.
Caterpillars eat the eggshell right after it hatches. Caterpillars live for 2 weeks. Caterpillars shed their skin when they get bigger, as many as five times. The chrysalis stage lasts for about 10 to 14 days. Its special gold beading goes half way around. When the adult butterfly comes out, it has to wait for its wings to stiffen before it can fly. Butterflies use a proboscis to drink nectar from flowers. Monarchs fly to Mexico for the winter because they cannot live in the cold and snow. Monarchs can fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
People spray herbicides on milkweed and cut it down because it smells bad or because they think it is a weed. This is bad because it is the only thing monarch caterpillars eat until they emerge from their chrysalis. If you spray pesticides, the monarch caterpillar and butterfly would die. Monarch butterflies sleep on trees and use them for shelter. Millions and millions of monarch butterflies gather around each other on these trees to keep warm. If too many trees are cut down, monarch butterflies will freeze to death because they won't have enough trees to keep them warm.
I want to help save the monarch butterfly. You can help too, by planting milkweed and other flowers for food and shelter. The flowers have to be in direct sunlight to help the butterflies warm up and stay warm. Put up a sign saying that your garden is a butterfly habitat. Do not use chemicals that could hurt the butterflies, caterpillars or the plants they need to live on. If you want to see butterflies, do not harm the caterpillars. Do not catch butterflies, if they lose too many scales they cannot fly. Do not cut down trees where butterflies go in the winter. If you see a tag on a monarch butterfly, contact Monarch Watch so they can know how far it has travelled.
How can we save the Monarch Butterfly? By spreading the word and taking action, we can take this beautiful creature off the endangered species list. Easy steps, like planting Monarch attracting plants, like milkweed, are just the start of how each of us can help. Teaching everyone you know about it is also a great step, but we need help from people around the world, if the Monarch Butterfly is to survive at all!
Each and every one of us has the power to help save the Monarch Butterfly!
Even you!
