One day in kindergarten when the sun shone warmly and clouds rolled back to reveal blue skies, we knew it was time to go. With winged headbands bouncing as we walked, we made the journey by foot to the Haverford College climbing tree, bare-branched Osage orange tree that has for decades been a favorite destination for children at FSH. This particular tree, unlike others in the area, beckons children to test their climbing skills like no other. with root-like branches twisting and turning within reach, children take to it with great enthusiasm. See more photos from our day in the slideshow sidebar!
On this particular day, the tree was our Mexico. Children alighted on the branches with smiles, draping their bodies over the branches and trunks, sighing with delight. When they had rested, they climbed about, stretching the limits of their physical bodies while sharing strategies and cheering one another on. Our monarchs found nectar and water too in this their symbolic Mexican winter home. We shared a morning snack of fresh fruit salad, water, and juice boxes (which we enjoyed with our proboscises, our straw-like tongues).
Kindergarten joined the symbolic monarch migration this fall, a project sponsored by Journey North, A Global Study of Wildlife Migration and Seasonal Change. We made paper butterflies and attached notes pf friendship to students who live in the butterfly sanctuaries in central Mexico. Our paper butterflies and letters traveled thousands of miles to their winter home along with the live butterflies that we had tagged in our classroom this fall. We will be using this site this spring to follow the northward journey of the monarchs to our schoolyard garden.
