March 20, 2001 Dear Students, Hello from your friends in the Unites States and Canada. Thank you for taking care of the monarch butterflies this winter! Even though you are still seeing monarchs there, the first few butterflies have already arrived in Texas. Here are the data for your migration map: Date Town State Latitude Longitude 03/15/01 San Antonio Texas 29 -99 03/15/01 Westhoff Texas 29 -97 03/13/01 Corpus Christi Texas 28 -97 03/12/01 Columbus Texas 30 -97 03/09/01 Victoria Texas 29 -97 03/03/01 Catarina Texas 28 -99 Students in over 6,000 schools are tracking the monarch migration this spring. As these students see their first butterfly, we will gather the information. Each week we will send a FAX to Angangueo you so you can track the migration. Here are the dates: 20 marzo, 27 marzo, 3 abril, 24 abril, 1 mayo, 15 mayo, 29 mayo, 12 junio (* No habra ninguno FAX el 10 de abril o 17 de abril porque las escuelas estaran cerradas para las vacaciones de pascua.) Using the migration data, each week you can: Count the number of Mexican States, U.S. States and Canadian Provinces where the monarchs have arrived. Measure how far from your home the farthest butterfly has flown. How far did the monarch in San Antonio, Texas fly? It usually takes until June for the monarch butterflies to spread across their entire range, as far north as southern Canada. But the butterflies that spent the winter in Mexico will not go that far. As the females travel north, they will lay eggs for the next generation and then they will die. A single monarch butterfly can lay 300 or more eggs! The monarchs that continue the migration to the northern U.S. and Canada will be the children and grandchildren of the butterflies you saw in Mexico. Right now, the snow is just beginning to melt in the far north. In many places, snow covers the ground from November until April! The temperatures are very cold, so the plants die back and the leaves fall off the trees. Here are comments from schools in the north: "We were starting to wonder if our plants would ever emerge - but March 15th is the big day. Still no leaves on the trees yet." Mr. Burkholder, Grade 11 Teacher, Orrville, Ohio "The snow finally melted and the emerging plants are about 1 inch high!" Ms. Sucato, Grade 4 Teacher, Montgomery, New York "After alot of snow has melted, we have finally seen about 5 plants emerging. We are hoping for warmer weather and beautiful flowers soon." Ms. Thompson, Grade 4 Teacher, Lincoln School, Dumont, New Jersey