It was quite a scene! We raised butterflies this fall as part of our study of insect life cycles and talked about how important the milkweed is to the Monarchs. We have a few plants on our campus, but not the quantity we needed to sustain the plants and attract butterflies/caterpillars. We hope to change that this year.
— Ann Luciani, Early Childhood STEAM Teacher, City Academy

Ann recently obtained some milkweed seeds, asked the children to separate the seed from the fluff and, well, see for yourself… (Her words are in italics below.)

 

Because we have moved on from insect life cycles, I used this opportunity to talk about the “properties” of milkweed seeds. Students listed all the properties and then compared/contrasted them with snow. 

I am looking forward to using the “fluff” in a STEAM project later this year. We didn’t waste any part of this plant! One of the K students said, “This is messy and I love it!” Me, too…

The students mix milkweed seeds with sand in preparation for sowing seeds in their schoolyard raised beds.

Ann distributes seed/sand mix as the children prepare to sow.

Seeds are sown!

The sown seeds are enthusiastically stomped into the soil.

Thanks so much for sharing your milkweed seeds with us. Maybe we will have some to share someday.