Last week, one of the Churchill Road Elementary School’s second grade classes experienced the first Monarch butterfly hatch of the school year.

The teacher, Laura Mack, participated in a week-long study of monarch butterflies in Michoacan, Mexico last February. This program was part of the Monarch Teacher Network, and provided Mack — and other educators from around the world — with the knowledge necessary to create an instructional program which allows Churchill Road second graders to study monarch butterflies firsthand.

With the help of last year's second grade students and parents, Mack created a milkweed garden on the Churchill Road grounds. This not only provided a habitat for butterfly growth, but serves as an outdoor classroom where students are able to observe the life cycle of the monarch butterfly for years to come.