Yesterday we released our butterflies into our garden.  It was so exciting to see the butterflies fly out of their netting habitat and into the world! We never knew which way they would fly once free.  We hope they all feel at home in our garden.

This year our third grade classes started a Butterfly Garden at Brecknock. This project aligned with our Performance Task for Module 6 where students are asked to educate the community on what we can do to help Monarch butterflies. Monarch butterflies only lay their eggs on milkweed which is the sole source of food for their caterpillars.  Milkweed is harder and harder to find in nature since humans are building and expanding. Monarchs also migrate all the way to Mexico each year for the winter and need to drink nectar from flowers to give them the energy they need for this long trip. We wanted our Butterfly Garden to have both milkweed and high-nectar producing annuals. We solicited donations from Esbenshades Greenhouse for 18 milkweed plants and 2 flats of high-nectar producing annuals. They donated milkweed,  zinnia and salvia.  We also got donations from the Garden Spot High School Plant Science Class. They had extra annuals from their plant sale that they grew in their greenhouse. We got mulch donated from Durrell Moyer. All students helped to plant the flowers. Mrs. Muhr’s Language Arts class made some informational fact cards to include in the garden as well.  We hope this garden will be home to the butterflies we are releasing as well as many other wild butterflies!

On Friday our butterflies started to emerge from their chrysalis.  What an exciting time! When we left for the weekend we had 1 completely out and 2 more that were shaking back and forth vigorously trying to emerge. When we arrived at school on Monday morning we had 7 butterflies and by lunch time all 12 had emerged! The butterflies are drinking sugar water. Tomorrow we will release them in our newly planted butterfly garden.

Our caterpillars each made a chrysalis. Most attached themselves to the top of the jar lids, but some weren’t sticky enough. We propped the lids up on little stands to place inside the butterfly netting habitat. We also put in the jars that had chrysalis in them in hopes they could still metamorphosize and emerge.

Our caterpillars have started their transformation to the next stage of their life cycle.  Each caterpillar attaches itself with  a sticky substance to the lid of the jar.  They then hang in a “j” position and shed their exoskeleton. This reveals the chrysalis that is underneath. Now the caterpillar is a pupa. Its body changes to liquid inside the chrysalis and then reforms to be a butterfly.

We are learning about the life cycle of a butterfly. This year we are raising butterflies so students can witness this miraculous change up close. A special thanks to the PTO for the funds to purchase our butterfly kits!  We are raising Painted Lady butterflies.  They arrived as caterpillars in little jars on May 1st. The jar contains the food the caterpillars eat. For the first 48 hours the caterpillars were quite still while they adjusted and acclimated to their new surroundings.  Then they started eating and growing! They will shed their exoskeletons several times while growing.  Stay tuned to see what happens next!

On May 17th Brecknock students will participate in our annual Day of Service in memory of former teacher Mrs. Lisa Horning.  This year we are collecting donations for the Animal Rescue League of Berks County.  Here is a copy of the letter sent home a few weeks ago. I hope you’ll consider making a donation.

As part of our Language Arts Module, all third graders embarked on a Virtual Field Trip on Wednesday, May 1st.  Brandon Hall from the “Geo Show” took us virtually to Piedra Herrada, Mexico to see where monarch butterflies migrate to over winter.  We saw a colony of butterflies roosting in the pine trees. Brandon shared lots of interesting information with us about monarchs and students asked questions to learn more.

We celebrated excellent student behavior in the month of April with monthly Star party. Each day our Students are Taking Academic Responsibility by making good choices at school. They start the day with 4 stars and try to keep them all day or even earn an extra star for excellent behavior. Teachers kept track of student scores all month and averaged them to see who was invited to celebrate good behavior at our S.T.A.R. Party. Any student that averaged 3.5  stars or higher was invited to our Game Day and was able to play board games and card games with friends after we finished the PSSAs.  Students who averaged 4 stars or higher were “Rock Stars” and were given snack bags to eat.  Now we’ll begin working on making good behavior choices for May!