Gracyn did a lesson on the monarch migration and the diminishing population of the butterfly. To begin the lesson, we discussed that one female monarch can lay up to 500 eggs ( one at a time) in its short life. It lays so many eggs because the survival rate from egg to butterfly is very small, only about 1 in 100 will make it to adulthood. Knowing that, we talked about why our chrysalis didn't survive and I asked if she wanted to look at it under the microscope. She was all for it so she observed it wings, head, eyes, abdomen, and legs close up. She commented it was creepy but cool. Especially its eyes. After that we discussed how the fourth generation of the monarch can travel up to 3000 miles to Mexico for migration where it meets up with millions and millions of other monarchs and hibernates. Once there, it knows to go to the exact tree that it's grandparents went. It's stays until spring and then begins its journey back. We watched a short video on the migration and learned how millions of monarchs are dying each year due to deforestation and herbicides. We read a book called, "The Threat to the Monarch Butterfly" and discussed what she could do to help the monarch population. She decided she could plant some milkweed so the monarchs have a place to lay their eggs.