Guest post from a Grade 5 Hamlin School student writing about her recent art project:

While I was researching, I discovered many interesting facts about the monarch butterfly. I learned that they can travel up to 3,000 miles while migrating, they can’t fly in the rain because their wings will get too heavy, so they have to wait the rain out. Also, I learned that they are called king of butterflies, hence the name monarch. Additionally, I learned that caterpillars gain about 2,700 times their original weight, and monarch butterflies don’t have lungs, they breathe through their scales!

I loved seeing this project in different stages. One challenge that I had was that the shapes of my creature were specific and detailed, so it was hard fitting the pieces into the collage. To help me with this problem, I used the scissors to make the shapes. Although this was challenging, I enjoyed putting the pieces on because it was really cool to see the colors and contrast come together. One thing that I was surprised about was how easily you could see the butterfly on my collage. I was pleased about how it came out because it looked pretty realistic and the colors looked really nice together.