Monarch Cookies

Monarch Monarch Cookie Ingredients:


3/4 cup softened butter
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 3.4-oz package Jello vanilla instant pudding (Not the sugar free or stove top version)
1 egg

1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda


Chocolate variation:
use chocolate pudding and add 1/2 tsp of cinnamon


Preheat oven to 350. Beat butter, sugar, dry pudding mix and egg in a large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Combine remaining dry ingredients. Gradually add to pudding mixture, beating until well blended after each addition. Form into ball. You may refrigerate up to 1 hour if dough is soft, but I did not find necessary. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch think. Cut into shapes, place on parchment paper on baking sheet. Reroll scraps and cut additional cookies. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until slightly firm. Cool on wire racks and decorate as desired.

Decorating:
We used 4 colors of Wilton Cookie Icing in the 10 oz bottles (red, yellow, white and black). Michael's sells them; see attached photo. Mix yellow and red together to make 2 shades of orange. With a clean flat paint brush, paint the yellow-orange shade on the 2 bottom "wings", and paint the darker shade on the top wings. Allow to dry -- about an hour. Then squeeze the black heavy lines for the border of the 4 wings. You may also put black in a baggie and cut a tiny hole in the tip to make the thin veins within the wings' borders. When the black is dry -- make the white dots on the wing borders; we used the baggie technique to make tiny dots.

Monarch Teacher Network

Day One

Sarah and Mike are working hard!

As many of you already know, I am a butterfly enthusiast!   Monarch Teacher Network  came to our school last week.  We certainly had a great time sharing our passion, and hopefully, created a few more butterfly enthusiast, as well!


The workshop was wonderful! We made cages to hold catepillars and to hold the butterflies once they emerge from their chrysallises.
We learned to care for the butterflies, and what their needs are depending on their stage of development.

We even had some time to play!

Threading the needle may have been the hardest part!

We spent the afternoon playing games....many great School in the Woods ideas!

Day Two

Butterflies enjoying their Juicy Juice!

On day two, after feeding the butterflies, we loaded the bus and headed out to find milkweed. Our first stop was the McMullen Creek Greenway. Here we were able to see a large milkweed patch! We were also able to see dogbane and compare it with actual milkweed. We saw many of the little creatures that live in milkweed communities.

We then headed to Beth Henry's home. Beth is a native gardener with a plethora of information. Here we were able to see milkweed and many native plants that are useful in home and school gardens

See why it's called the Cup plant!



The "Cup" Plant

This is the book Beth highly recommends!

Ellie with her beautiful, and yummy monarch cookies!

We then headed across the street to Ellie's home. Here, we were greeted with beautiful homemade monarch cookies.

The Monarchs are Coming!
As I look at the Journey North website, I see that the Monarchs are already heading north! This site is a wonderful resource to see where the Monarch are.  It also shows where milkweed has emerged from its winter sleep.
My group of 6th graders are so excited to see the emergence of seedlings, tropical milkweek and early spring veggies, that we planted a few weeks ago under the growlights in my classroom.  Just yesterday, our new tropical milkweed bed was filled with dirt and is awaiting being planted!
Today, we will work in the garden to prepare beds for spring plantings, and we are expecting an 80 degree day!  Spring is in the air!