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The Magic of Monarch Butterfly Migration
Teacher Guide
Booklet/Slideshow (K-1)(Gr. 2+)

Summary
Every fall, a magical event takes place in the animal world. Perhaps traveling over your own head right now--or clustered by the hundreds in a nearby tree--the annual monarch butterfly migration to Mexico is underway. By instinct alone, the butterflies go to the same mountains that their ancestors left the previous spring. Somehow, they find a place in Mexico that they've never seen before. Monarch butterflies are born knowing everything they need to survive, so we look on with wonder:

  • How do the monarchs know when to go to Mexico?
  • How do they know which way to fly?
  • How fast, how far, and how high do they travel?
  • And how do they know when they have arrived--at a small speck on the planet where none has ever been before?

Introduce students to the magic of monarch migration using the facts, photos, and maps in this booklet). In addition to an overview of monarch migration, this booklet concludes with an invitation to track monarchs on their trip to and from Mexico with Journey North.

This Teacher Guide Includes:

 

Lesson Goals and Objectives:

Lesson Goals

  1. Build a sense of wonder about monarchs and migration.
  2. Invite students to be citizen scientists, actively engaged in real-world, real-time scientific inquiry with Journey North as your guide.
  3. Begin students’ scientific journey by asking questions-for-research and exploring where and how answers might be found.
Lesson Objectives
After reading The Magic of Monarch Butterfly Migration students will:
  • Locate their home state/province and the monarch's winter home in Mexico on a map of North America.
  • Write research questions about monarchs and migration in their "Magic of Monarch Migration" Journals.
  • Define key words and concepts from the reading selection: habitat, instinct, migrate, migration, track and citizen science.
Materials List and Helpful Handouts

Home/school connection:

For this lesson:

  1. Suitcase with Mexico written on an attached tag. Place monarch booklets, journal covers, journal pages, parent letters with suitcase tags, maps, and more inside the suitcase. (See lesson for details)
  2. Large chart paper
  3. Monarch butterfly photo

For each student:
Use these ready-to-use reproducibles specifically designed for this booklet/slideshow:

Map of North America
Invite younger students to identify Mexico, find the monarch’s overwintering region and their own home state or province. Challenge older students to use this blank map in a variety of ways to show how maps convey information (the monarch's migration route, seasonal distribution, habitat regions, etc.)

Page-by-Page Planning Guide

Experience the text first as a reader and then as an instructor. As you read through the booklet/slideshow text, use this planning guide to capture your thoughts: observations, questions, discoveries, vocabulary, possible teaching applications, etc. Share your thinking process with students to model effective reading strategies.
Step-by-Step Instructional Plan

Pre-Reading: Set the Stage for Learning

1. Bring a suitcase to class. Attach a tag and write Mexico on it. Invite students to take a scientific journey with you to Mexico. Wonder aloud and record your questions on a class "wonder" chart. (The class will revisit the questions on this chart at the end of the lesson, and discover that monarchs can do these things by instinct.)
    • Does anyone here know which direction we would need to go to get to Mexico?
    • Would we go north, east, south or west?
    • Could you find Mexico by yourself?
    • What would help us to find the way?
    • What would we pack to keep ourselves warm, dry, and safe?
    • How many miles would we need to travel?
    • If we went without a vehicle, how long would it take us?
    • Would we need to stop along the way? What for?
    • If we were traveling by foot, at what time of year would it be best to leave our hometown?
2. After filling students' heads with pre-journey wonder, announce: I think we need a tour guide to help us learn answers. Peek inside the suitcase and pull out each of the following items one at a time without revealing any information: A monarch butterfly photo; a map of North America, a Journey North suitcase tag with website address, The Magic of Monarch Migration booklets, a stack of journal covers and first jounal pages. Place these things on a display table without any discusssion. As kids ask questions, simply add the questions to the the “wonder” chart you started at the beginning of this activity.

3. Now reveal what students will learn and do during this unit of study as they follow the monarch butterfly on its journey south to Mexico.

    • Who is our tour guide? (The monarch butterfly!)
    • How will we travel with the monarch? (Using technology and real-time maps. On the Internet, show students Journey North's monarch butterfly home page with its live monarch migration maps.)
    • Who will be going with us? (Students from across North America who are following monarchs to Mexico as citizen scientists. Kids from Canada, Mexico and every state in the United States will join us.)
    • What kind of journey is it? (Scientific.)
    • What will be doing on the trip? (Just like real scientists who study monarchs, we will be citizen scientists who observe, ask questions, collect data, and analyze information to find answers.)
4. Introduce the booklet or slideshow by reading the title aloud: The Magic of Monarch Migration. Think aloud by sharing your thoughts about the book based on its title:
    • Magic makes me think... (amazing and hard to believe)
    • Magical makes me think...(something can't be explained and everybody wonders how or why)
    • When I watch magicians, I always wonder how did they do that?

5. Ask students: Why do you think the author used the word magic in the title of this book about monarch migration? In what ways might monarch migration be magical? Invite brief response from students.
Reading the Booklet
  • Read the booklet or view the slideshow as a class. Model your sense of wonder by thinking aloud questions as you read each page. For example (after reading about the mountains in Mexico on page two): I wonder what makes this region the perfect winter habitat for monarchs. Why do monarchs choose Mexico’s mountains for their winter home?
After Reading: Revisit for Understanding

1. Introduce Science Journals: To document our journey this year we'll keep journals where we'll record what we see, learn, and wonder about.

2. Distribute Journal Covers (or have students make their own) and the first journal page: My Questions for Research. Invite students to revisit each page of the booklet and write questions on their journal page. For example, after reading that monarchs travel from Canada to Mexico, students may ask: 

    How many miles is the journey?
    How long does the trip take?
    Do monarchs make nonstop flights to Mexico?
    How far can a monarch travel in one day?

3. Place students in small groups and distribute The 5 W's and H Research Chart to each student group for brainstorming. Invite them to share and compare the questions they collected on their individual Journal pages. Challenge them to extend their list of research questions. The chart requires them to write “Who, Where, What, Why, When, and How” questions.

Sample questions:

  • Who tracks monarchs on their seasonal journeys?
  • Where are monarchs sighted at different times of the year?
  • What do monarchs need to survive?
  • Why do monarchs migrate?
  • When do monarchs begin their journey south to Mexico?
  • What do monarchs need to survive?
  • How can we ensure that monarchs survive and thrive now and in the future.

4. Wrap Up
 Explain to students: Monarchs are born knowing how and when to migrate hundreds of miles to Mexico. People need suitcases, maps, clocks, technology to find their way to Mexico. They must learn where to go or be led by another person. Monarchs know how to travel by instinct. They come equipped with everything they need to migrate and they know how to find what they need from their habitat as they travel. As we travel with the monarchs this fall, we'll see what scientists know about monarch migration and we'll discover how much more there is to learn about the magic of monarch migration.


Journal Page
My Questions for Research

 


Research Chart
The 5 W's and H

 
Related Journey North Lessons and Links

1. Lesson: How is a Human Vacation Like an Animal Migration?
During one class session, students are asked to compare and contrast human travel with animal migration using a two-column chart. Use this lesson to help students gain an appreciation for the remarkable journey monarchs undertake each year: How do monarchs find their way to Mexico without a map to guide them? How do they know where to go and how to get there? How do they survive changes in weather without packing a suitcase of supplies? Can you imagine traveling thousands of miles alone—shortly after your birth (like monarchs do in the fall)?

2. Lesson: Learning vs. Instinct
Welcome back to school! Children are returning to school this fall to begin their year learning skills they'll need in life. Monarch butterflies are born knowing everything they need to survive. As they learn about monarchs, have students record examples of the monarch's instincts. Also have students interview parents to find out what human babies do by instinct. Find out what a scientist says are advantages and disadvantages of learning and instinct.

3. Lesson: Life Cycle Sleuth
Use questions to initiate your study of monarchs and migration with this related lesson: “Life-Cycle Sleuth: Students Develop Theories about Migration.” This lesson asks students to think about why animals migrate. The Life Cycle Sleuth checklist provides overarching questions that can be used in conjunction with the Questions for Research chart provided above in this guide.

4. Link: Life Cycle Booklet/Slideshow
The above activity would be a great bridge to another Journey North booklet/slideshow:

  • Booklet/Slideshow: The Life Cycle of the Monarch Butterfly (booklet/slideshow)
Focus on Vocabulary

Key Words for this Booklet/Slideshow

Definitions and Synonyms in the Context of Monarch Migration
Build understanding of key concepts by exploring these vocabulary words in context.

Citizen science (noun): a scientific study that involves regular people, rather than professionally trained scientists.

Habitat (noun): natural surroundings in which an organism lives. The place that provides an organism's basic needs for survival and/or reproduction: air, food, water, shelter, space, and endurable (better word?) climate conditions. Synonyms: natural home, environment

Instinct (noun): born with knowledge; know without the need to learn. Synonyms: a sense of, intuition

Migrate (verb): to move to a different habitat, usually according to the changing seasons. Synonym: to move seasonally

Migration (noun): the journey to a different habitat, usually according to the changing seasons. Synonym: seasonal movement

Mountain Range (noun): a series of related mountains.

Region (noun): area of land. Synonyms: locale

Track (verb): follow the migratory path; keep a record of events. Synonyms: study, research, examine

Suggested Activities

1. Vocabulary Riddles: Read aloud the title of the booklet/slideshow. Review the definition of synonyms: words that have similar meanings. Challenge students to make predictions about words they may encounter in the book by creating vocabulary riddles: I am a noun. In the thesaurus, I can be found with synonyms such as place, territory, area, section. I am six letters. I start with the letter R. Who am I? (region) Record predictions without confirming their responses. Read the booklet and ask students to find the words for each riddle. Encourage them to read aloud the sentence in which the word appeared and summarize its use pertaining to monarchs.

2. Word Capture and Conquer: (During and After Reading Activity) Have students circle or underline unfamiliar words as they read the text. Encourage them to write predictions or questions about the words in the margin of the booklet. Ask them to be ready to share each word they “captured” from their reading. To “conquer” each word, they must be able to give a definition, list synonyms or related words, and use it accurately in a sentence.

Building Vocabulary with Journey North

  • Create your own Monarch Migration word wall or glossary by collecting words and definitions throughout the year.
  • Challenge students to create crossword puzzles using definitions for Across and Down clues.
  • For additional ideas, see: Building Vocabulary with Journey North


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