By Jerneja Alic
Learning the life cycle of butterflies can help very young children to care about nature throughout their lives. That’s the opinion of new Director of The Children’s Campus at RVCC, Cathy Griffin.
The kids in Griffin’s classes raise Monarch butterflies “to develop a sense of wonder and a love for little animals,” she said. They learn to observe, appreciate and take care of nature.
Two-year-old Riley knows a lot about caterpillars. “They eat only milkweed leaves,” she said. She’s even learned to count the caterpillars in the cage.
“Butterflies come out of caterpillars,” said four-year-old scientist Caterina. “Girls don’t have dots,” she said. “Boys have dots on their wings.”
As children release butterflies they say “adios,” to them because “That’s how you say goodbye in Spanish” said one little boy passing by. Why not? After all, they know that these butterflies are heading off to Mexico.
Griffin believes that if children learn “to love and take care of the smallest thing on the Earth, eventually (they) will take care of the whole thing.”
Griffin has a lot of experience with children. She has taught pre-school, elementary school and children with special needs and was the director of another preschool before coming to RVCC this year.
She began using Monarch butterflies in her preschool classes after reading a book to the kids called “Butterfly Is Born.” Students need to learn about Monarchs first hand, she decided. “Young kids need to have hands on science,” she said, “so they’ll never forget it.”
Acording to Griffin, “today’s children have too much ‘screen time.’” She thinks they are spending too much time watching TV and playing video games and don’t play with nature as much as they should. She tries to bring a little bit of nature to them, she said.
By doing so, Griffin hopes the kids will learn to appreciate nature and come to feel responsible for the natural world.
The children’s project is a part of one sponsored by a larger organization called Monarch Watch, an educational outreach program established six years ago in NJ.
Each year, 100,000 students and adults tag monarchs with identification numbers before setting them on their journey to Mexico. More than 2,000 schools, nature centers, and other organizations in the United States and Canada participate.
Monarchs winter in the same forests in Mexico every year. These places have been turned into sanctuaries for their protection. Monarch Watch pays people in Mexico to find tagged butterflies and can let students here know if their butterflies complete the trip.
“The children have already released 35 monarchs,” Griffin said, “and will probably send about 100 on their way by the time the project ends.”
That’s just the beginning. The kids will soon make paper butterflies that will be shipped to schools in Mexico, making the same journey.
As part of an organization called Journey North, Mexican children protect the paper butterflies all winter and send them on the return journey north in the spring.
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Video Production Team:
Haley Graham (talent)
Garrett Kozden (videographer)
Special Thanks To:
Kelly Oliver, RVCC Media Specialist
Bick Treut, TV/Video Club Advisor
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