Write a Field Guide for the Monarch
Overwintering Sites

Guide at the Sierra Chincua Sanctuary

In February and March, Journey North sends weekly news from the monarch's overwintering region in Central Mexico. Much of the information cannot be found in a book--so why not write and illustrate your own? If your class would like to prepare a Field Guide--in Spanish--that could actually be used by tour guides at the Mexican sanctuaries, please contact us by using our feedback form.

Important: Do Not Send Materials Without Communicating With Journey North Staff First!

Some Guidelines
  • Read each report for information and facts about monarch biology and conservation. Topic areas such as the following will be included in Journey North updates:

Habitat and Range Life Cycle and Reproduction
Population size Food, Water, Diet
Anatomy Predation
Adaptations Conservation
Migration  

  • Information in your Field Guides must be accurate! (Teachers should carefully review the students' work before having it translated into Spanish. Obviously, if your Field Guide is sent to Mexico, we want the sanctuary guides to have accurate information!)
  • Please have the translation as good as possible. (It would be perfect to have facing pages in English and Spanish, so the students could do their own writing and see their own words in Spanish.)
  • Feel free to download pictures from the Journey North Web site to include in your work. Some classrooms have digital cameras and can take pictures of the monarchs they raise and release. Other classrooms have good artists, and their artwork gives a personal touch that technology can't beat.

Background
We sense that there are many classrooms who do monarch-related projects but have no use for them after the assignment. At the same time, the tour guides in the sanctuary region don't have any materials or written information about monarchs--either to learn from or to show to tourists. (A few teachers enclosed their class works with their Symbolic Butterflies--and they were really wonderful.) Therefore, this seemed like a good match. We will collect these and deliver them to the sanctuary area when we go down next fall. Thanks for your help!


National Science Education Standards

Science as Inquiry

  • Ask a question about objects, organisms, events. (K-4)
  • Communicate investigations and explanations. (K-4)

Other Science Standards
(Students' research and field guides may reflect many of the standards in life science, science and technology, and so on.)