Fly Away Home

Well kind of...

We had an exciting day on Tuesday.  It all started before the first day of school.  My aunt, who has a fantastic "compound" in the country outside of Dodgeville (huge gardens, beautiful house, sheds, trails for four-wheeling, organic fields, etc, etc), had a cage of monarch caterpillars the last time I visited her.  As soon as I commented on them, she said, "Let me get you some for your classroom!"  In no time she had scooped up two fat caterpillars, a handful of milkweed and sticks, and poked some air holes in a plastic container.  I was all set to hatch some butterflies for my first time in a classroom - my first kind of classroom pet EVER actually!

I brought them to school and kept an eye on them all day, every day.  They chomped away and grew even plumper.  Then as I arrived for school on the first day - TADA - one had turned into a chrysalis over night!  As the kids came in and took notice for the first time, I told them that we should expect it to hatch in about two weeks, around the 14th of September.  The next day when I showed up, the OTHER guy had turned into a chrysalis, too.  Now, we wait...

On Monday when I walked into the room and turned on the light, the FIRST thing I noticed was a butterfly!!  I don't know when it happened, but chrysalis #1 had hatched and the butterfly was slowly drying out.  I didn't know exactly what to do next, so I emailed Mrs. Okray - our Barrie resident butterfly expert.  She sent down an orange for it to eat and recommended releasing it within one or two days.  

The next day, Tuesday, the other monarch had hatched!  Both were beautiful and looked ready to get out of their little jar and into some fresh air and sunlight!  I decided that instead of risking coming in to dead butterflies the next morning, that it would be best to release the butterflies at noon that day, while the kids were still outside for lunch recess.

I walked out with the jar and had a swarm of second graders around me.  I slowly popped the top off the jar, and butterfly #1 buzzed right out!  I think he/she was grateful for the fresh air (despite the smoke from the Minnesota wild fires).  Butterfly #2 required a little more coaxing.  I picked up the stick it was resting on and began to move it.  I didn't take long to take flight, too.  

And then the kids were chasing them across the soccer field...until they flew out of sight through the smokey air on the path headed straight to Mexico.  It was SUCH a fun experience.  But of course I forgot my camera...boo.  That's the thing I have to get better at if I'm going to keep up with blogging!  However, I think that lots of the kids will remember this - they certainly have talked about it a lot and have documented it with plenty of drawings!

Hopefully we will get a chance to see Mrs. Okray release her 8 monarchs tomorrow!