Rosary Cathedral Catholic School Monarch Butterfly Rescue Grant Program February Update

This post was contributed by Connie Taylor, NCEA Monarch Grant Program Teacher Leader

Our garden was cut back in the late fall. It is currently sleeping under a light blanket of snow.

I have been reconnecting with my invaluable resources from last year. This includes emailing our Toledo Grows representative to let her know we are interested in continuing our partnership for the coming year, as well as the good news about the grant renewal. I also met with our friend from Wild Ones, to inform him about the good grant news and the desire to continue our partnership. He commented that he was interested in writing up our garden in a future Wild Ones newsletter.

I will be contacting the Butterfly House this week to secure a field trip date in May. We once again started Lent out with the theme of “Lent to Easter – A Time to Grow and Change!” featuring the lifecycle of the Monarch as our visual.

“Monarch Mondays” will begin in March, with the theme of “Monarch Madness.” This will involve adding a Monarch fun fact every Monday to the morning announcements.

Learn more about Rosary Cathedral Catholic School’s Monarch butterfly activities and more on Facebook and Twitter.

Rosary Cathedral Catholic School in Toledo, Ohio, is a two-time recipient of the NCEA Monarch Rescue Grant. Grantee schools will share monthly updates on their efforts in researching, planning, building, and maintaining the very best monarch-friendly butterfly gardens possible. They will monitor the success or failure of the garden, learning from problems they encounter to plan improvements in subsequent years. Most important, the developing learning modules will incorporate Catholic social teaching on stewardship of the resources God has provided us.

Follow the Monarch Butterfly conversation using #NCEAMonarch, search NCEA Talk using keyword Monarch Butterfly Rescue and view the Monarch Inspiration Gallery on Pinterest.