Butterfly Migration and Musical Motion! (Loosen Your Wrist Violins!)

I remember as a child being fascinated with learning about the life cycle of the monarch butterfly. We raised a butterfly from a cocoon in my elementary classroom and released it in the spring. In October, I attended a Suzuki violin workshop led by Winifred Crock. Ms. Crock is a master teacher who studied Suzuki violin in Japan. One of the many ideas I took from Ms. Crock at the workshop is using butterfly finger puppets to help students develop fine muscle coordination and make small wrist motions. Last fall I also attended an outdoor educational event called "Butterfly Bio Blitz" at the Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon. Although I had learned about butterflies as a child, I was amazed how much I learned during the afternoon at the national monument. I had no idea, for instance, that many butterflies have damaged wings.

I need a class set of butterfly finger puppets to teach my students about the migration of monarch butterflies and to help inspire my students to develop flexible violin wrists.

Most students have already learned about the life cycle of the butterfly, but there are so many more details that are very interesting. For instance, did you know it takes four generations of monarchs to travel from Canada to Mexico? We will read the book, "When Butterflies Cross the Sky" by Sharon Cooper to begin learning about the migration butterflies. Afterwards, I will set up map stations in the room to represent super stops on the monarch migration route. We will use our finger puppets while listening to Joshua Bell's CD "The Romance of the Violin" and listen and move musically like we are butterflies making the journey from Canada to Mexico. As our wrists move up and down, our butterfly wings will fly to Mexico!