The Monarch
by Sean

Where am I? Oh, man, I am starving. This stuff is delicious. Hey. . .who turned on the lights? That egg was hot! I'm glad I'm out of it. Who are you? Who cares, as long as you're giving me food, I'll take it! Oohhh, this stuff is even better than the other stuff! I love milkweed. I guess it's time for me to go into my J shape. Hey guy, let's count to three and then spin the button. ! 1-2-3! Everybody spin! Now, split and split and split that skin off! I'm hot. I can see through this thing. I think it's time for me to come out. Hey look! I've got wings! First an egg, then a larvae, then a chrysalis, now a monarch. What next?

By Scott

I started out as an egg. I will be eating my way out, so I hope there's no danger outside. I see movement. Crunch! Crunch! Crunch! I'm out! What to do??? Well, after eating my way out of my egg, I tried to go to sleep. OK, I'm awake. Gosh, I'm starving. I think I'll go eat. Mmmmmmm. Yummy, milkweed leaves! I keep on eating and sleeping and then I leave waste marks on the bottom of my container. I go up on the top of the plastic container which is hard to hook onto. I'm now making a "J" shape and pretty soon I will split my skin. Oh, here I go; I am a chrysalis. Now I'm like a liquid. In a few days I change again. My chrysalis turned green, then clear and black because you could see my wings through it. I started to split my clear chrysalis and back out. My body was bigger than usual. Soon I pumped blood into my wings and got to eat this really sweet, good read stuff with my proboscis. Now my new friends let me go.

My Butterfly Story
by Matt

One day I appeared in this egg. I had a theory that if I ate the shell, I would appear somewhere. So, I ate through the shill and found out that it was crunchy. I was on a gigantic milkweed leaf. I ate the rest of my egg which was full of flavor. I was still starving, so I ate some of the leaf. The next day I ate even more of the leaf. It tasted really superior to anything I had eaten before.

I ate some more, then my exoskeleton fell off, but soon I had a new one. Then, I crawled to the bottom of the leaf, went into "J" shape and then my skin fell of, but inside was a hard shell-like skin. I stayed in it for about a week. I was all mushy and squishy, then I turned black. I was wondering if I ever would get out. I pressed and I pushed and I couldn't get out, so I waited. I waited and waited all day.

The next day I tried again and what do you know! I popped right out! I was a monarch butterfly. At first my wings were small and my abdomen was huge. I pumped my blood into my wings and gradually they grew larger. Some red liquid fell to the ground. I sat there for a little bit, waiting for my wings to warm up. Then I flew away down to the south where it is warm. That's my story and now I'm a vivacious, colorful monarch butterfly.

Life of a Butterfly
by Pat

Hi! I'm a monarch butterfly and I am going to tell you the story of my life.

I started out as a tiny egg, but I didn't just hatch and become a butterfly. No siree. After I hatched, I was just a tiny larva. I got a little hungry, so I started to eat a green thing that I soon learned was a milkweed leaf. I kept on eating and eating until my skin got very tight, so I tried to wiggle it off as I grew new, bigger skin. I kept eating and kept on having to wiggle my skin off. Finally, I decided to climb to the top of the leaf and hang in a "J" shape while I again shed my skin, but this time for the last time. This layer of skin, however, was different from any other skin; it was hard and very green. This layer of skin was called a chrysalis. Inside it I was a pup and was going though some major changes. In fact, I was basically a liquid.

I was in this chrysalis for about 2 weeks, then finally I came out and my wings were very wrinkled, so I pumped blood from my abdomen into these wings to make them big and flat. One day later I started to fly from flower to flower to pollinate and also to get food for myself.

My Story
by Amanda

Hello, my name is Jay and this is my story. It all started when I woke up. It was dark and I was scared and kind of squished. I was in what I later found out was called an egg. I was pretty happy in there for a while, but then I started to grow. I became very squished--almost jammed. It was very hot, and, let me tell you, very uncomfortable. The a strange feeling came over me. I felt there was more to life than just being in that egg, and I just knew that I needed to get out. So, I took action and started eating the egg shell, and boy, it tasted good! But soon I grew tired and fell asleep. I kept having these weird dreams where I was climbing. I was hanging from some sort of a web that came from my mouth. It was strange. When I woke up I heard voices. They were saying, "Look, Maggie, Jay is moving in his sleep."

"Yeah, amanda, he looks like his is doing a somersault!" I couldn't believe it; it was horrible, absolutely horrible. They called me a "he"--the nerve! But I got over it and soon grew to be like those people. I felt comfortable around them. They made me feel important. I spent most of my days eating, sleeping and listening to the kids talk about such and such. Some days I would even watch movies that the classes watched. I observed a lot of stuff in that little classroom, but now that I am out of it, I am not sure if I miss it or not. I do know something for sue, though. I do miss listening to class discussion and that stuff, but I am getting off the subject. I got very itchy, so I threw back my head to scratch it and my skin split. I felt very uncomfortable, so I wiggled out of it. I felt a lot better. Once again I felt that there was more to life, and I knew that I had to climb up and find the perfect spot. After walking around for a while, I found it. I though I was supposed to hang down, and so I didn't I knew what was about to happen; this was my dream, except it was real this time. I hung down and curled my head so I was comfortable, counted to three and shed into my chrysalis. I don't remember much of the days in there, except that I felt strange. It is hard to explain, squiggly almost. At one point, my chrysalis became clear and I could see there was no one in the room, so I decided the time was right. I came out in a whole new form, the form of a beautiful monarch butterfly. When everyone came back to class, they discovered that I was a girl, and I discovered that I couldn't chew anymore. It was okay because I could drink this wonderful honey.

A few days later a photographer came and I decided to show off my beautiful wings that I could fly with. I showed them off to everyone, the teacher, the kids, and the photographer from the paper. Then they opened the cage door so I decided to fly around some more. I nice lady called Mrs. Troxel caught me and put me in a plastic container. We went outside and all the kids who raised me held on to the container I was in, counted to three, and let me go. I flew out and began my life as a butterfly. It was the happiest day of my life. I was free.