Students at P.B. Smith Elementary School’s ecology club are learning about the life and migration of monarch butterflies. They learn in the classroom about the butterfly’s need for certain plants. They learn scientific words for the stages of a butterfly’s life. But, ecology club teacher Barbara Dennee says they learn the most when they visit their school garden in Warrenton, Virginia. There they wait patiently for the monarch to arrive. Just recently, monarch butterflies landed in their garden where among vegetables and herbs, the students planted the milkweed plant. Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed plants. There are concerns that the plants have been disappearing because of poor weather conditions and the use of herbicides. So, monarchs, which travel between Canada and Mexico during their migration, now have far fewer places to stop.
