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Outdoor Observations: How is Monarch Habitat Changing?
Teacher Guide
(Teacher Guide #4 of Fall Monarch Migration: A Guided Tour for Teachers)

Summary
Monarchs have basic needs. They survive only in environments in which their needs are met. How is monarch habitat changing in your hometown and how do these changes affect monarchs? In this lesson, students make outdoor observations to explore these questions. Using the information they collect and the observations they make, students formulate predictions, draw conclusions and share their findings in creative ways.

This Teacher Guide Includes:

 

Lesson Goals and Objectives:

Lesson Goals

  1. Understand basic needs of monarch butterflies: food, water, shelter, and space to grow and reproduce.
  2. Discover where monarchs find food, water, shelter, and space in changing habitats.
  3. Observe seasonal changes in monarch habitats.
  4. Examine how seasonal changes in outdoor habitats affect monarch butterflies.

Lesson Objectives
In this lesson, Fall Habitat Changes and Monarchs’ Needs students will:

  • List basic needs of monarch butterflies: monarchs need food, water, shelter, and space to survive and/or reproduce.
  • Collect data about seasonal changes by observing outdoor habitats.
  • Analyze collected data by exploring how seasonal changes affect monarch butterflies.
  • Describe how a monarch’s habitat provides for its survival needs: food, water, shelter, space, reproduction.
  • Explain how habitat changes relate to fall migration of monarchs.
  • Formulate hypotheses related to the timing of fall migration using habitat data.
  • Explain how habitat data (temperatures, daylengths, condition of vegetation, etc.) can be used to predict departure times of migrating monarchs.
Materials List and Helpful Handouts

For this lesson:

  1. Images: Looking for Signs of Seasonal Change
  2. Large chart paper
  3. Link: Sunrise/sunset lookup

For each student:
Suggested materials for outdoor observations:

  • Notebook or sketchbook, pencil, digital camera, magnifying glass, digital thermometers

Ready-to-use reproducibles designed for this lesson:

 

Images
Looking for Signs of Seasonal Change

Thinking Questions Clue Cards Fact Sheet Data Sheet
Step-by-Step Instructional Plan

1. Viewing Images: Looking for Signs of Seasonal Change
 Show students these images and have them compare and contrast details by describing similarities and differences. Use these images to introduce the focus questions for this lesson.

  • What changes can you find in these pairs of photos?
  • What is the condition of the plants in each photo?
  • What time of year do these photos reveal?
  • Which details provide evidence to time of year?

Review or explain the basic needs of monarch butterflies: food, water, shelter, and space to grow and reproduce.

2. Questions and Clues
 Give each student a copy of the Thinking Questions. Let them know that these questions require time to think so you will not be asking for immediate responses or discussion. Read aloud the questions and then place students in small groups. Give each group a set of Clue Cards. Provide time for students to explore how the words are related to each other and how they might relate to the list of Thinking Questions. Invite students to use dictionaries to find definitions for unfamiliar words. After each group has had a chance to explore the words, challenge them to create fact sentences with related clue cards. Encourage them to use the Thinking Questions to help them create their sentences.

Give them an example to get them started:

  • What do monarchs need? Monarchs have basic needs: food, water, shelter, and space.
Invite each group to share the fact sentences they created with the clue cards. If students need additional information, provide the Fact Sheet. Challenge them to connect the fact sentences on handout with seasonal habitat changes.

3. Observing Our Outdoor Habitats
 Take students outdoors to collect data about the specific seasonal changes they can see, hear, smell, and feel in your hometown. (Decide which materials your students will need for their field study: notebooks, sketchbooks, magnifying glasses, cameras, etc. Be sure to have them record the date, time, and location of observation.)

Encourage students to draw and write about the conditions of plants, the temperature and weather, animal behavior, and more. Challenge them to zoom in on the details by observing like a scientist.

Invite students to share their observations when you bring the class back inside. Create a class chart of seasonal changes by listing the ideas they share. Ask students to identify which changes impact monarch butterflies:

  • Would a monarch butterfly be able to find what it needed in our outdoor spaces today?
  • Where would the butterfly find food, water, and shelter?
  • Would a monarch find fresh milkweed leaves where she could lay her eggs?
  • Would larvae have a chance to grow before temperatures drop and weather conditions become unsuitable?
  • What weather conditions are ideal for monarch butterflies?
  • What weather conditions would be dangerous for monarchs?

Highlight or place a star next to the seasonal changes that impact monarchs: lower temperatures, plants that are going to seed and dying, fewer hours of daylight.

During the next few weeks, make additional outdoor observations to collect evidence of habitat changes that occur in the fall.

4. Collecting Temperature and Daylength Data:

  • Record sunrise and sunset times to explore how daylength changes in the fall. Revisit the Fact Sheet and Thinking Questions to help students make connections and draw conclusions based on the data they collect.
  • Record temperature data to predict timing of fall migration.
  • Revisit the Fact Sheet and Thinking Questions to help students make connections and draw conclusions based on the data they collect.

5. Formulating Hypotheses
How can we use the data we collected to predict the timing of fall migration? Using the collected data, invite students to predict the timing of fall migration. When will monarchs leave our area? For specific details for this activity, see related lesson:

6. Summarize Findings
Invite students to choose a creative way to share their discoveries about seasonal changes and monarch butterflies: (possible ideas)

  • Nonfiction booklet or slideshow: Have students work with a partner to write and illustrate their own booklet or slideshow that describes how seasonal changes affect monarch butterflies.
  • Scrapbook: Collect a variety of photos or student illustrations of monarchs in changing habitats. Have students create scrapbook pages with the photos/illustrations. Have them write informational captions for each photo or illustration to summarize their discoveries. Collate the student-created pages into a class scrapbook.
  • Discovery poster: Have students create a large wall poster that includes photos/illustrations and fact sentences to summarize what they learned about seasonal changes and monarch butterflies.
Related Journey North Lessons and Links
1. Lesson: Too Cold to Fly Today?
Monarch butterflies are in a race against time during fall migration. They must leave the north before they're trapped by the cold. In this lesson, ........

2. Booklet/Slideshow: Nectar and Migration: Finding Food Along the Way
Where do migrating monarchs find nectar on their journey south? In this slideshow, students explore the habitat needs of monarchs during their journey south.


Focus on Vocabulary

Words and Definitions Related to Fall Monarch Migration
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Building Vocabulary with Journey North
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