Teacher Guide: Temperature and Survival | The Balance Between Warm and Cold

Teacher Guide
Temperature and Survival
The Balance Between Warm and Cold
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Summary
It can be warm during the day at the monarch's winter home in Mexico, but at night it's as cold as the inside of your refrigerator. This is surprising! Why do monarchs migrate long distances to overwinter in a place that is so cold? This slideshow explores a key question:

Essential Question
What temperatures do overwintering monarchs need to survive?

Slideshow/Booklet

Lesson Goals and Objectives:

Lesson Goals

1. Introduce and explore how temperature conditions affect monarchs during the overwintering months in Mexico.

2. Investigate how the forest protects overwintering monarchs in Mexico.

3. Expand students’ understanding about the adaptations monarchs have for surviving in cold temperatures.

Lesson Objectives
After viewing the slideshow, reading the booklet, and completing follow-up activities, students will:

Describe how climate conditions in the overwintering sanctuaries affect monarch butterflies.
Explain how forests help monarchs survive cold and wet weather conditions.
Describe how monarchs are adapted to the climate conditions they experience during the overwintering months in Mexico.
Define key words and concepts related to monarchs, temperature, and survival.

Page-by-Page Planning

Experience the text first as a reader and then as an instructor. As you read through the text-only version of the slideshow, 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. Examine Cover Image
Invite students to examine the cover image of a monarch overwintering in Mexico. Encourage students to share what surprises them about the photo.

Ask, Why do think monarchs migrate long distances to overwinter in a place that is so cold?

2. Anticipation Guide
Distribute the Pre-Reading Anticipation Guide to small groups. Have students predict which words fit in the blanks to reveal facts about monarchs, temperature, and survival. Encourage them to think about the title and find clues in the photos and graph to make their predictions. Stop periodically to ask kids what surprises them in the text and photos. Note: You may use the Teacher Copy to modify or create your own Anticipation Guide.

Cover Image

Viewing the Slideshow

As a class read through the pages of the slideshow together, stopping occasionally to spotlight key ideas and ask questions. Encourage students to share questions sparked by the information and images.

Reading the Booklet

Determine how you will have students experience the booklet text for a first reading: whole class, small group, partner, or individual. Encourage students to take notes or mark up the text--underlining key ideas and making notes in the margins.

After Reading
1. Find the Facts: Risks/Benefits Note-taking Chart
Invite students to work with a partner. Distribute the Risks/Benefits Note-taking Chart and have students find and record facts from the text. What are the risks and benefits of cold temperatures? What are the risks and benefits of warm temperatures? What adaptations do monarchs have to survive the cold temperatures they experience in Mexico? Challenge each group to use their completed chart to write Discovery Statements that summarize what they learned.	Risks/Benefits Note-taking Chart
2. Discussion Starters
Draw from the list of Guiding Questions to spark thoughtful discussions about key concepts. Note: Be sure to highlight questions about monarch adaptions. Many of the monarch's adaptations to cold are behavioral adaptations (shivering, climbing, clustering, basking, migrating to a cold region in Mexico). Note: You may want to distribute the guiding questions to help students find and record facts from the booklet as they use the Note-taking Chart (above).	Guiding Questions
3. Line Graph: Average Low Temperatures
Revisit the line graph from the slideshow. The graph shows the average low temperatures at the overwintering sites in Mexico. Use the Questions for Analysis to help students explore the data. Challenge students to write Discovery Statements to summarize what they learned from this temperature graph. Tip: Take it Live! You can collect and analyze current temperature data. See Monitoring the Temperatures of the Monarch's Winter Habitat.	Line Graph
4. Journal Page: Think by Analogy
Dr. Lincoln Brower says the monarch's forest is like an umbrella and a blanket. Analogies help us understand new things because they draw upon our past experiences. This journal page has students use analogies to describe how the forest protects monarch butterflies. Think by Analogy: How does the forest protect monarch butterflies?	Journal Page
5. Wrap Up: Summarize Learning

1. Revisit the Anticipation Guide.
Use the guide as an assessment tool by challenging students to fill in the blanks. Invite students to write a paragraph that describes why a balance between warm and cold temperatures found in the forests of Mexico help overwintering monarchs survive.

2. Write your own fact book
Copy the Blank Book to make your own booklet using information you learned about monarchs, temperature and survival. This copy of the booklet has only photos, headings, and space for students to write their own text.

Blank Book
Students can write their own text.