Morgan and I had an amazing day today! We visited the Monarch Sanctuary in Chinqua. We rode a horse up the mountain and had an amazing view of millions of Monarch butterflies hanging onto oyamel trees in clusters. Although everyone voted for me to name my horse Sparkly, he already had a name. My horse’s name was Raul and my guide was Roberto. Morgan was a little nervous on the horse but Raul was a great horse and Morgan ended up having a great time.
Roberto (guide), Morgan, Miss Liz and Raul (horse)
Once we reached the Monarch colonies, we saw millions of butterflies. Some were on the oyamel trees while others were resting on the ground or flying in the sky. Because it was a cloudy day, many of the butterflies stayed in their clusters because it was cold and their bodies were not ready to fly. When the sun came out and warmed the butterflies, many of the butterflies left their clusters and flew in the sky. This is called cascading. Some butterflies landed on your flowers, while others landed on Morgan and his friends. I saw a few butterflies with tags on them. It is possible that some of those butterflies were the ones that you helped to release. Here are a few pictures from the Monarch Sanctuary.
The Monarch butterflies are in clusters on the oyamel trees
This is a close up of a cluster of Monarch butterflies. How many Monarch butterflie do you predict are in this picture?
Monarch butterflies landed on Morgan and his new friends. Tweeter is Morgan's new friend. He is a bird.
Morgan was so excited when a Monarch butterfly landed on one of the flowers that you created.
There were so many children at the Monarch Sanctuary. They enjoyed meeting Morgan. Morgan and I donated your flowers to them. They were so excited to have something made from children in New Jersey.
I can’t wait to get back to New Jersey to show you all the wonderful pictures I was able to take of all the Monarch butterflies in the sanctuary.
Miss liz – wow, Cindy told us we would look at the third day tomorrow because there is so much snow here and everyone is leaving but some of us looked at it already. You got to go on a horse, but I never did that, and I think there were a million butterflies on the oyamel tree{Ryan}
That was very nice of you to give the children the flowers{Jacob}
Hi Miss Liz,
I wrote to you yesterday, I’m not sure if you got the message. Oh well, I will write a new message. I think there are 40 monarch butterflies on the oyamel tree. Miss Liz I hope you are having a wonderful day at Mexico. I know you love Mexico. We are talking about you. I know you like the Mexico food. I know it is more fun when you are here come back soon.
Love,
Mia
Hi Mia
I was able to reply to your message. You should be able to read it right where you left me a message. 40 monarchs is a great guess. I am having a wonderful time in Mexico and the food is great but I do have fun at home too. I miss seeing everyone in the morning at school but I will be home soon.
Miss Liz
Miss Liz – Maia said you should name your horse princess, even though it already has a name… we still like princess. Mia wants to know if you are still eating tortillas