BUTTERFYL MIGRATION

The butterfly is one of the most beautiful of all the insects. People love these pretty creatures. The beauty and grace of the butterfly inspired many artists and poets. The Greeks of the ancient world believed that a person's soul left the body after death and formed itself into a butterfly.
A butterfly begins as a little egg, which soon turns into a caterpillar. The caterpillar spends most of the day eating and growing. Only the caterpillar's skin doesn't grow with them. The caterpillar's skin then sheds and they form a larger body of skin. It repeats this at least several times. After the caterpillar is fully grown it forms a shell for protection, then it forms inside the shell. When this finishes it is a lovely butterfly.
I bet you knew that birds migrate, but it might be hard to believe that butterflies migrate too.
Spring comes and goes, but what do butterflies do over the winter when they have no shelter? They migrate! The big question is where do these creatures migrate? Some butterflies migrate in the south, central America, or they may even go to Mexico, to escape from the harsh and cold winter. In the spring they flutter back to their warm homes in the United States and Canada. Such a fast movement is called migration. One of these butterflies that migrates is monarch. It is the winner of long distance. The monarch can travel as far as 2000 miles, from Canada and the Northern States to California, Florida, and Mexico. The butterflies spend most of their winter time resting and saving up energy for their flight to return in the spring. Very few of the adults might not even make it to fly back. Female monarchs lay eggs as they fly back during the spring. Other butterflies that migrate include the painted lady, the cabbage butterfly, the red admiral, and the clouded yellow.
A group of kids want classrooms from around the world to made thousands of paper butterflies that will "migrate" to Mexico for the winter. Then they will be sent back in spring. To find out more about what this all means please visit Send a Monarch to Mexico.