planting milkweed seeds


March 31

The World Wildlife Federation gave us milkweed seeds to provide food for migrating Monarch butterflies.

It all seemed to work together to make part of our Monday plan. 


Last week our milkweed seeds arrived in the mail from World Wildlife Fund.  

Researchers have found that the Monarch butterfly numbers have dropped worryingly low in the last few years.  One reason is the lack of milkweed - the Monarch's only host plant.  WWF is asking folks to plant milkweed in your backyard, cottage, farm, or in our case, school yard.  





We re-used toilet paper rolls to hold the soil. 



And scooped up some soil, filling it up just about to the top.



Each child planted a seed.

Now all the planted seeds have been watered and are sitting in the window sill hoping for sunshine. 




We will plant them in a soon-to-be-wild(er) area of our school yard.  And hope that the butterflies find them.

happy planting,







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10 comments

  1. What a cool project! I did not know about the butterfly population dwindling. I might have to share that with my kiddos-they are butterfly fanatics! :)

    NotJustChild'sPlay

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    1. Are you raising butterflies? We just ordered ours :)

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  2. I love this idea. I keep thinking I should invite the kindergarten kids to come plant the milkweed so that when they are in first we can go and see where the caterpillars have landed. We have milk weed everywhere in Maine. I wonder if there are certain areas where milkweed is scarce or if I just think we have a lot of milkweed. Thank you for giving me food for thought as always.

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    1. That would be an awesome kindie-grade one project. Pesticides have wiped out a bunch of wild milkweed. So the poor little migrating butterflies have nowhere to lay their eggs.

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  3. What a great idea! I'd like to bring more nature to our school surroundings--must check this out!

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Oh - I hope that you can bring some nature into your school yard. We are very fortunate to have wooded areas in our school yard - it is wonderful for the kids. Sending positive nature thoughts your way.

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  5. What a great idea!! We just got some milkweed seeds and need to plant them. I love the idea of using tp rolls. Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!

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  6. Toilet paper rolls work well for planting seeds. When they are ready for transplanting, the whole thing can just be placed in the soil. Quick, easy and biodegradable.

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  7. We hatched butterflies. It was amazing. It makes me sad to think the population is dwindling.


    Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!

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