Michigan 4-H Children's Gardens

Butterflies in the Garden - 2022

Classrooms:

We are planning to have both in person and on line visits.  Teachers, if you would like to schedule a field trip contact Jessica at: garden4h@msu.edu.

We will have on-line activities (see below) and we have an asynchronous virtual Butterfly Tours. We hope you enjoy and learn from our online offerings and we hope to see you in person in the future!

General Public:

Unfortunately, Butterflies in the Garden will not be open to the general public in 2022 except for Butterfly Day, Saturday, April 30.  We apologize for any inconvenience.  Click here to Register for Butterfly Day.

2022 Virtual Butterflies in the Garden Tour

You can make a virtual visit to our 2022 "Butterfly School" through the information, links and activities below.

It's not quite the same as a real visit, but for this year it is the best we can do.  Enjoy!

Become a 4-H Children's Gardens Butterfly Friend

To become a Butterfly Friend you will need to learn about butterflies and have some fun.  When you have completed the Butterfly Friend Learning we will email you a Butterfly Friend Certificate.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Study about butterflies in the Butterfly Lab with Miss Jessica.
2. Visit the Butterfly Flight house using the Virtual Tours.  Be sure to check out the special information that you can learn using our Smart Signs.
3. Try our at least one Butterfly Craft.
4. Pick your favorite Butterfly plant to plant at home.
5. Take our Butterfly Friend Quiz (see below).

After we receive your Butterfly Quiz, we will send you a personalized Butterfly Friend Certificate.

So, let's get started on "Butterfly School".

Visit the Butterfly Lab

• Download a copy of our "Butterflies in the Garden" Activity Book
• Study Butterflies with Miss Jessica
• Learn more about the Butterfly Life Cycle
• Take our 2012 Virtual Butterflies in the Garden Tour
• Explore some of our Butterfly collection

Visit the Butterfly Flight House

• Photo tour
• Butterflies flying

Try out some Butterfly Crafts

• Miss Jessica has put together a bunch of great ideas for Butterfly Crafts.  You are sure to have some fun doing these crafts!
• Click here to get to the crafts page.
• Tell us what craft you tried in the Butterfly Knowledge Quiz below.

Butterfly Plants / Butterfly Garden

• Look for these plants that you can add to your Butterfly Garden.

Our Butterfly Plants

• These are plants that we have in the Indoor 4-H Children's Garden and seedlings that field trip visitors could plant to take home.
• These are the Butterfly Plants that are growing in the Outdoor Butterfly Garden
  • Butterfly Bush
  • Fennel
  • Pentas
  • Seedum
• Links to more Butterfly Plant information 
  • Pollinator Partnership
  • English Gardens
  • North American Butterfly Association

Create your Butterfly Garden

• After looking at the plant information above, make plans to plant your own Butterfly Plants or Butterfly Garden.
• Tell us what plant(s) you would like to plant in the Butterfly Knowledge Quiz below.

Become a butterfly

1. Download one (or more) of our butterfly outlines
   
   • Julia
   • Monarch
   • Painted Lady
   • Swallowtail
   • Zebra
2. Make sure you have a photo of yourself.  If you don't, then take a minute to take one.
3. Open your image in a photo editing program and delete the background or make it transparent. You will have to find instructions on how to do this online.
4. Open the butterfly outline in the photo editing program
5. Add (insert) your image on the butterfly outline image (You may have to resize and rotate your image so that it fits).
6. Save your new butterfly image.
7. Upload your butterfly image in the Butterfly Knowledge Quiz below and we will add it to our Butterfly Friends page.

Test your Butterfly Knowledge

Individuals / Families:

• Click here to take our Butterfly Friend Knowledge quiz.  We will look it over and send you a Butterfly Friend Certificate.

Classrooms:

• Click here to take your Classroom Butterfly Knowledge quiz.  We will look it over and we will send you a Classroom Butterfly Friend Certificate.

Ask Your Butterfly Questions

If you have butterfly questions, you can CLICK HERE to ask your questions.  Dr. Norm and Miss Jessica will get answers back to you as quickly as we can.

Meet our amazing Butterfly Friends!

Click here to see our Butterfly Friends.