For Kids and their Parents

This section has ideas for fun, games and education for kids and adults and some great KIDS LINKS.

You can buy some of these games and the children's book from us- please email us

      
    Butterfly Bingo and Concentration Games                      Children's Book Written by Mia - "What If"

Here are some games and projects that students had fun playing in our gardens:

Bilateral Symmetry  Ink Blotches or Paint on Paper folded in half/ Games with mirrors- reverse imagery-other things in nature with bilateral symmetry

Color choices for butterflies in paint first before going to the trail-This really helps with identity of butterflies-some kids were great at this!

Butterfly Lists Competition  This is a Scavenger Hunt with all stages of butterflies -of course you don't actually pick up the butterflies and caterpillars, but kids with a simple camera can use it to record what they see.  End results would be when the pictures come back of course.  Real entomologists have to resort to photos to prove what they see as well.

Flight Path Levels  Different ages and heights will see different butterflies at eye level-Record eye level butterflies
Butterfly Shadows -requires bright full sun-Looking down at the pathway in front of you, count the number of butterfly shadows you see.  Try to find as many as you can.

Trap-lining Heliconians  Become a Zebra Longwing on a summer morning in South Florida
Pollen-Gathering (Trap-lining)
Using the knowledge you have learned about Zebra Longwing butterflies from the book shown above, "What If"; pretend you are a pollen-gathering butterfly and mark yourself a trail to follow that you will use each day to get pollen in your garden.  Then ask a friend to guess the route you would take if you were flying through the garden.  If he or she is right, they pick a friend and so on.

Butterfly Identification  Make teams of 2 or 3 people and choose a garden area to sit and wait in.   When a butterfly comes, write down the color, shape (if you can see it) and where the butterfly is flying (above the trees, in the trees, at eye level or very low near the path).  The group that gets the largest number of different butterflies in 20 minutes will be commended or win a prize, like a bouquet of flowers (at your discretion).   In addition, if you can accurately identify what you have seen using our charts, that would be great.

Plant Identification  Learn to recognize the difference between plants by studying the leaves and flowers of butterfly plant photos.  Then try to locate real plants that are exactly the same as your picture.

GREAT KIDS LINKS

FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN:

THE PARTS OF A BUTTERFLY GAME

OUR COOL BUTTERFLY GAME

AN ONLINE BUTTERFLY WORD GAME (tricky)

MAGGIE MONARCH'S JOURNAL

WHAT'S A BUTTERFLY?

PARTS OF A BUTTERFLY INFORMATION

A SULPHUR BUTTERFLY TO COLOR

BLUE MORPHO BUTTERFLY

FOR TEACHERS:

FLAPPING BUTTERFLY- AN ORIGAMI TALE FOR TEACHERS

BUTTERFLY GLOSSARY

SUNDIALS FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS Sunrise-Sunset by Longitude/Latitude

JOURNEY NORTH- INFO FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS ON MONARCHS, etc