Symbolic Migration - 5th Grade GT Math
There is math to be found and used in all of science. By learning about the magical migration of the Monarch butterfly, an opportunity was provided for connecting math with the natural world around us.
The 18th annual Symbolic Monarch Butterfly Migration takes place all across North America. Over 60,000 students in the United States and Canada create symbolic butterflies and send them to Mexico for the winter. Children in Mexico who live beside the monarch's winter sanctuaries protect the butterflies and send them north in the spring. Through the Symbolic Migration, children across North America are united by the monarch butterfly and celebrate its spectacular migration. They learn authentic lessons of ambassadorship, conservation, and international cooperation.
Figuring it all out - We started our "journey" in the computer lab by learning about the amazing cycle of the Monarch and its miraculous annual journey.
Using Ratio and Percent to Send Good Wishes as Ambassadors - It was time to prepare a symbolic class Monarch to send to Mexico through the Journey North program. There, our Monarch would "roost" for the winter, acting as an ambassador as well. To represent each of us, we created glyphs that would show special things about ourselves.
Espanol - We used Google Translate to make a key in Spanish for each of our glyphs so the students in Mexico would understand them. We attached the glyphs and our pictures to the symbolic Monarch cut from a file folder and included a class picture and a cluster of small colorful butterflies that would eventually land all over North America. We think our symbolic Monarch turned out very special! We also included a donation for the Monarch Fund to help keep the Monarch's overwintering sites in Mexico from disappearing.
Our Symbolic Monarch Made it to Mexico! - It was very exciting to log on and see that our symbolic Monarch, filled with our pictures and glyphs, had indeed made the journey to Mexcio!
Springtime Brings Returns - Once the spring had hit, just as the real Monarchs begin heading north from Mexico, so did the symbolic Monarchs. We happily received an amazingly beautiful butterfly covered in images of peace. Inside was a cluster of life-size Monarchs, each from a different place in North America. We logged on to Journey North's database to let the creators of the Monarchs know we had received their message of ambassadorship.