Monarch Butterfly Resources

We have searched around to build our list of Monarch Butterfly resources. Some of the best resources have been suggested by our site visitors. Do you know of a site that should be on our list? – Email Us

All About Butterflies Enchanted Learning has put together a great site for young learners to continue their discoveries of butterflies. (Access to full site relies on a donation.)

A Guide to Butterfly Gardens Ava’s Flowers teaches how to plan, grow, and maintain a butterfly garden.

Butterfly Garden Flowers Backyard Boss lists the best plants for a butterfly habitat.

Education World This site connects educators with information on some of the best Monarch Migration websites.

KIDZONE’s Monarch Butterflies This site contains crafts, information on butterflies, real photos, coloring pages, ordering butterfly farms, puzzles, and a lot more!

Mrs. Jones’ Butterfly Page- Mrs. Jones’ Room is a nicely organized site with a lot of resources: songs, printables, on-line activities, additional resources, and more!

Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation-  This contains all the latest and most accurate scientific data and research about Monarchs.

Butterflies In Your Playground  This site contains butterfly facts, butterfly gardening, and butterfly fun.

The Teacher’s Corner  Educators can find lesson plan ideas to integrate butterfly science across the curriculum and arts and crafts, too!

A to Z Teacher Stuff site Find butterfly and caterpillar themed lessons and activities here, as well as resources at other sites, and related themes.

Butterfly Egg Photos The Joyful Butterfly site offers some free photos.

Now the feasting begins! The caterpillars will eat for two to four weeks, devouring leaves and plants. It will outgrow its skin several times, as its size increases. Each time the skin is shed, new skin appears, soft and moist. When the caterpillar has accumulated enough fat, it stops eating and nearly stops moving. It may wander away from the plant in search of a good place pupate (become a pupa). Depending on the species of butterfly, the caterpillar may dangle from a plant when it pupates, attach itself to the plant’s surface, or crawl into some other sheltered spot.

After the caterpillar has settled into its chosen place to pupate, one of two possibilities occurs. If it will change while hanging from a plant, it first must spin a silken pad, used to anchor it to the plant. It does this by using its lower lip, or jaw spinnerets. Once complete, the caterpillar clamps onto the pad with its rear claspers and remains this way until metamorphosis is complete. Species that do not hang while they change simply spin a silken harness to secure them to the plant. Then the pupal skin forms beneath the caterpillar’s old skin. In about a day, the caterpillar molts one last time, and the pupa (or chrysalis) is formed.

The final stage of a butterfly is most wondrous! Scientists still struggle to understand all the details of this metamorphosis. The word metamorphosis comes for the Greek, to transform. And that’s exactly what happens inside the chrysalis. The caterpillar liquefies its structure and tissues changing into that of a butterfly. This transformation takes up to two weeks to complete, and then, out of the chrysalis, emerges a beautiful butterfly! Its wings are crumpled, and it cannot yet fly. By pumping liquid into the veins of its wings, they stretch and expand into their full size. Soon the butterfly will begin seeking a mate. But there isn’t much time to spare because the life span of an adult butterfly is not much more than a month!

BUTTERFLY CRAFTS FOR KIDS