BUTTERFLIES AND BLOOMS

Teachers’ Notes

Who is it for? 7-11 year olds

How long will it take? This activity is designed asa one hour session

Learning outcomes:Students study the relationships betweena selection of summer flowering plants and the butterflies that depend on them. In this activity, students will focus on species found in Wisconsin’s Northwoods, USA.

What do you need?

  • Interactive whiteboard or projector
  • Computer to connect to whiteboard or projector
  • Butterflies and Blooms classroom presentation
  • Butterflies and Bloomssummer bloom wheel pattern
  • Butterflies and Bloomsspecies study sheet
  • Round head paper fasteners
  • Color pencils or crayons
  • Scissors

Summary:

In this lesson, students investigate the summerflowering cycle of plants found in Wisconsin’s Northwoods and the butterflies that depend on the presence of those plants for food, habitat and metamorphosis. By creating a summer bloom wheel, students will be able to visualizewhat species of plant the butterflies rely on during the summer.

Preparation guidelines:

1.Read the instructions to become familiar with the activity, the resources and the desired student outcomes.

2.Print out a copy of the Butterflies and Bloomssummer bloom wheel pattern and Butterflies and Bloomsspecies study sheet for each student in your class. Alternatively, the study sheet can be projected onto the whiteboard.

How to run the session:

  1. Begin by showing the Butterflies and Blooms PowerPoint presentation. Guide the class in a discussion of the following concepts:
  1. Plants can flower in all four seasons of the year. Not all plants flower in spring and some can even flower when there’s snow on the ground.
  1. The relationship between insects and flowers. Many insects depend on flowers for food. Some insectsuse only one kind of plant for food and metamorphosis so their life cycle is synchronised to the cycle of the plant.
  1. The relationship between insects and their plant food sources is only a small part of the complex biodiversity web of the forest.
  1. Hand out the following to each student: Butterflies and Bloomssummer bloom wheel pattern, Butterflies and Bloomsspecies study sheet, round head paper fasteners, color pencils or crayons, and scissors.
  1. Have students cut out the Butterflies and Bloomssummer bloom wheel patternsand the window boxes on the second wheel patternalong the dotted lines.
  1. Next, using the Butterflies and Bloomsspecies study sheet as a guide, have students draw each species of plant and butterfly in the appropriate place on the Butterflies and Blooms summer bloom wheel bottom sheet. Students should feel free to fill in the entire arc with the species listed but should try to draw one single clear image of the plant and butterfly under each title.
  1. Encourage students to decorate the front of their summer bloom wheel with drawings of what woodland flowers, insects and trees look like in the summer season.Refer to the Wisconsin’s Northwoods eco-region page on ARKive for images of the woods during the summer months.
  1. Finally, have students secure the top wheel to the bottom wheel by poking a hole through the inner circle with a pencil, pushing the round head fastener through, and pulling back the two bottom tabs in opposite directions to secure it. Using both hands, students should be able to hold the bottom wheel steady and spin the top wheel. By aligning the windows with a species of flower, the wheel should also reveal which butterfly relies on that flower.

Discussion questions:

  1. The marsh marigoldis one of the first plant species in Wisconsin’s Northwoods to bloom withsightings as early as March. Looking at your summer bloom wheel, which insect in the forest is active during this time and uses this plant for food?
  1. Some flowers bloom in response to a change in the temperature and as spring approaches will flower according to changes in temperature. What other cues from nature might cause a flower to bloom? Answers can include changes in change in amount of sunlight each day or an increase or decrease in seasonal rainfall.
  1. Plants help insects and birds by providing food from their flowers, seeds and berries. How do insects and birds help support plantsin return?When answering, students can discuss how insects and birds tend to carry pollen from one plant to another helping the plant to reproduce.
  1. What would happen to the northern blue butterfly if the dwarf bilberrywas delayed in opening or did not open at all? Students can discuss how a change in one species behaviour alters other species that depend on it. In this case, the northern blue butterfly would not be able to continue to its metamorphosis stage if the dwarf bilberry was delayed in growth.

Extension activities:

  1. Why not get your students toexplore the wider biodiversity web of the forest by looking atother speciesin the Wisconsin’s Northwoods eco-region to try to find connections.You could also broaden the students search and look into other regions for butterfly and bloom connections on ARKive.
  1. Visit ARKive’s Wisconsin’s Northwoods eco-region page ( for a listing of over one hundred species found in the region.

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