Butterflies are free
Presentation at Oceano Elementary kicks off a national Monarch program
Times Press Recorder
Story
by Bob Behme
Click here for more photos from Oceano Elementary
OCEANO -A
national campaign to highlight the plight of Eastern and Western Monarch
butterflies was kicked-off in the
Sheila
Boone, president of the Daniel Boone Butterfly Palace in Nipomo, distributed the
packs.
"The kits
are new, designed for grades one through four and there is nothing like them in
early education," Boone said.
An Awareness
Pack contains two CDs, one a recording of the Monarch theme song, "Free As a Butterfly," and the other is a Caterpillar Chew-Chew, a
song celebrating butterflies in the chrysalis stage. The pack also contains two
stickers, special field trip brochures, a poster and an activity book filled
with things to do.
Monarchs are
endangered because their habitat is shrinking on both the East and West coast.
The kits are designed to make children aware of the beauty of Monarchs and the
scope of their problems. Students in Oceano will will write letters, which will
be included with kits to be sent to fourth graders in
Kits for
both Oceano and
Monarchs are
unusual in that they spend summers feeding and breeding along the mountain
foothills, then migrate to spend their winters in
warmer areas where they can be found thickly clustered on trees. One of the
largest wintering sites is found in
Staff writer Bob Behme can be reached at
bbehme@pulizer.net
* Free as a
Butterfly Publisher Images Press
S. Boone Productions