Photo by David Slater
*Make sure you know what types of butterflies and plants will thrive best in your climate.
*If you are going to "hatch" butterflies in your LMC/classroom/etc... make sure to factor that in to your timing. Insect Lore has a great butterfly kit for schools.
*You may want to store any materials and notes the students take in one place so that they do not get lost!
Photo by MyTudut
Aside from the plot for the garden and the plants there are a number of things that you may need.
*Access to internet access (computers/iPads/etc...) and/or books for research
*Graph paper for garden design
*Colored pencils/crayons/markers
*Materials to present idea to PTO/School Board/funding source (poster board,
*Gardening tools
*Watering Can
*Paper
*Writing Utensils
*Materials to create stepping stones if you're adding that activity.
You may need to modify the plants based on what type of butterflies you are trying to attract. The basic principles apply regardless.
* If you plan to actually plant a butterfly garden as part of your workshop or as a result of the work the students do make sure you have a location in mind. Talk to the necessary people to get permission to use this site.
* Secure funding. This will help you to determine the budget that your students need to stay within. We chose to have out students seek the funding themselves however we talked to the PTO ahead of time so we knew the money would be there.
* Find a list of butterflies and butterfly attracting plants that grow in your climate.
* Contact local suppliers for pricing on the plants. Make up a pricing list for students to use. You can try to have them search the internet but we had problems with this.
* Check out the "Additional Resources" page for lesson plans and ideas!
* If you have any "local experts" you could bring in it would be a nice change.
* Parent or teacher volunteers really help the workshop run smoothly.
* If students are not able to attend one of the meetings buddy them up with another student to catch up on what they missed.
* It's a good idea to get feedback from students and adults involved.
* Have a plan to maintain the care of the garden.
This page created by Heidi Zweifel
