Home Is Calling: The Journey of the Monarch Butterfly -- Book Review with Craft Round-Up

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Over the years we have loved learning about butterflies and especially monarchs. We grow milkweed to help keep monarchs around. Today I get to share with you a wonderful new picture book about the long journey they take every autumn. The book is Home Is Calling: The Journey of the Monarch Butterfly by Katherine Pryor and illustrated by Ellie Peterson. It is recommended for ages 4 to 7. At the end of my post is a round-up of butterfly crafts and activities including a section on monarchs! It shares more than 50 ideas!


From the Publisher:

Join the monarchs as they embark on a transcontinental journey home in this moving story about migration.

As the sun dawns in Canada, a flutter of monarch butterflies take flight, ready to begin their months-long journey to their ancestral home in Mexico. The migration will not be easy, but it is necessary for the next generation of monarchs to be born. Brought to life with illustrations as vivid as the monarch’s iconic orange and black hues, this story invites young readers to experience the monarch’s migration from the butterflies’ point of view as they search for food, huddle together through storms, and tirelessly fly south.

Parents and educators alike will find much to love about this poetically written book. The story touches on how climate change and deforestation are impacting monarchs, and kid-friendly back matter provides additional information about the butterflies, including their life cycle, anatomy, and migratory patterns, as well as several simple ways children can help monarch butterflies themselves.

From Me:

To begin I love this book!! It does a wonderful job of explaining the life of the monarch and how long the journey south really is. Even with all the knowledge I have learned about monarchs over the years here at Crafty Moms Share, I found this book informative and did one of the best jobs I have seen for explaining the length as well as the issues that occur during the migration. It is so interesting that it takes four generations to make the same migration north but only one generation for the trip back south. 

This book has beautiful artwork, and the details of the monarchs are wonderful. The words are easy for young ones to understand and describe so much of the migration and perhaps how the butterflies feel making it. It includes flying over the green fields where there are no flowers for food and no trees for rest as well as the desert. It even goes into how some of the land in Mexico has been cleared so the trees are not necessarily where they expect them to be. 

At the end of the book are pages that include information about monarchs with illustrations labeling body parts, the life cycle of a butterfly, as well as information about milkweed and threats to monarchs and ways to help. Then there is a map of North America and Mexico with migration routes and more information about the migration the butterflies make. This book is perfect for any home, library, or classroom. It shares a story but also teaches and would be wonderful for unit on migration, preparing for the cooler weather or butterflies. I hope you will check it out!

Craft Round-Up

To go with this book, I asked some fellow bloggers for their monarch and butterfly crafts and activities. I separated them into different categories.

Monarch Butterfly Craft Round-Up:



1.  Symmetrical Butterfly Painting from The Craft Train

2. Butterfly Coloring Pages (10 Different Ones) from Homeschool of 1

3. Hands On Learning Butterfly Life Cycle from 3 Dinosaurs

4. 3D Monarch Butterfly Craft from The Craft Train

5. Felt Monarch Butterfly Wings from Buggy and Buddy (Shared and Featured at Sharing Saturday)

6. DIY Painted Monarch Mask from Barley and Birch

7. 3D Monarch Model and Other Books

8. Mosaic Monarch Butterfly Craft from Our Kid Things

9. Waiting for Wings Art Project from The Educator's Spin On It

10. Monarchs in Mexico

11. Learn with Monarchs from The Educator's Spin On It

12. Monarch Life Cycle from Mama Smiles Joyful Parenting

13. Learning about Butterflies

14. Monarchs are included in The Atlas of Migrating Plants and Animals

Butterfly Life Cycle Craft Round-Up


1. Butterfly Life Cycle from Tina's Dynamic Homeschool+

2. Pasta Butterfly Life Cycle from Darcy and Brian and Mommy Evolution

3. Butterfly Life Cycle Craft from The Best Ideas for Kids

4. Spinning 3D Butterfly Life Cycle Model from STEAM-Powered Family

5. Life Cycle Craft

6. Paper Plate Butterfly Life Cycle Craft from Mombrite

7. Butterfly Life Cycle Lacing Cards from ABCs to ACTs

8. Bandage Butterfly Life Cycle from The Preschool Toolbox

9. Tween and Teen Art Crafts with Dye Cut Butterflies

Butterfly Sensory Bin Round-Up


1. Butterfly Sensory Bin (with preschool activities) from Natural Beach Living

2. Butterfly Sensory Bin (with printable activities) from Little Bins for Little Hands

3. Butterfly Life Cycle Sensory Bin from Mommy Evolution

Butterfly Craft Round-Up




1. Blue Morpho Butterfly Symmetry Craft from Tina's Dynamic Homeschool+

2. Butterfly Crafts and Life Cycle

3. Butterfly Treat Bags from Natural Beach Living

4. Clothespin Butterfly Craft from Our Kid Things

5. Butterfly Silhouette Craft from Easy Peasy and Fun

6. Melted Crayon Butterfly Craft from Barley and Birch

7. Butterfly Kite

8. Butterfly Symmetry Painting Craft from Little Ladoo

9. Toilet Paper Roll Butterflies

10. Tissue Paper Butterflies & More

11. Easy Coffee Filter Butterflies from Darcy and Brian

12. Caterpillar to Butterfly Craft

13. Butterfly Identification Cards from Little Ladoo

14.  Preschool Butterfly Worksheets from Homeschool of 1

15. How to Draw a Butterfly from Easy Peasy and Fun

16. Count to 10 Butterfly Coloring Book from ABCs to ACTs

17. Butterfly Cutting Worksheets from Simple Everyday Mom




18. Paper Plate Butterfly Craft from Simple Everyday Mom

19. Polka Dot Butterfly Painting from Little Bins for Little Hands

20. Learning about butterflies hands-on

21. Butterfly Party Ideas

22. Affirmative Butterfly Printables

23. Paper Hearts Butterfly Craft from Mombrite

24. Butterfly Stick Puppet Craft from Simple Everyday Mom

25. Glow Stick Butterfly

26. Caterpillar to Butterfly Craft from Mama Smiles Joyful Parenting

27. Various Butterfly Crafts

28. Clothespin Butterflies

29. Butterfly Toilet Paper Roll Craft from Fun Money Mom

30.  Origami Butterflies from Kit

31. Tween and Teen Art Crafts with Dye Cut Butterflies

32. Origami Butterfly

33. Origami Butterflies

34. Origami Butterfly Art

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