Rosie and the Butterfly Study Guide

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ROSIE AND THE BUTTERFLY STUDY GUIDE
prepared by Cathy Kaemmerlen

ARTISTS BACKGROUND:
Cathy Kaemmerlen, professional actress, storyteller, and author/playwright is known for her variety of characters, one-woman shows, rapport with audiences, and for bringing history and stories to life. A performer and “creator of shows” since she can remember, she has toured in schools coast to coast since receiving a BA in English/elementary education and an MFA in dance performance/choreography.  She tours through G.E.T., the Georgia and South Carolina Touring Arts Rosters, the Teaching Museum of Fulton County, and through her own production company, Tattlingtales Productions. She is the author of four creative non-fiction books for adults and children.

Sara Gaare has been a teaching artist for the past two years, performing all around metro Atlanta. She also teaches and performs improv and sketch comedy in Atlanta with the Clarkston Community Center, The Village Theater, and Highwire Comedy Co. She created Power Suit, a monthly, all female comedy variety show she hosts and performs sketches in. Previously she lived in Chicago where she trained and performed at iO, The Second City, The Annoyance, ComedySportz, and many others. There she created the award winning sketch group MRS. that performed all around the city and did many sketch comedy festivals. Graduate of Pebblebrook Performing Arts High School in Cobb County and Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, she is the daughter of Cathy Kaemmerlen.

PROGRAM SUMMARY:
The official children’s show for the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail, Rosie and the Butterfly uses puppets, costumes, backdrops, and narratives to explore the early life of Rosalynn Smith Carter and the life of monarch butterflies.  As a child, Rosalynn loved butterflies and the idea of journeys. Monarch butterflies come through her hometown of Plains, GA each fall on their way to Mexico, and each spring on their way back home to Canada.  Rosalynn married Jimmy Carter, became the First Lady, and has travelled, like the monarchs, all over the world with the Carter Center Missions but all journeys end in the same place–HOME. Follow the life cycle of a monarch and learn something about Georgia’s first lady as their lives intertwine.  Learn how to register your monarch garden on the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Gardens Trail.

OBJECTIVES:    
-Learn the life cycle of the monarch butterflies
-Learn facts and stories about butterflies and monarchs, for example how they got their name
-Learn about Rosalynn Carter
-Learn about monarch habitats
-Learn how to register a garden on the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail
-Learn how to help the monarchs
-Learn about Dio de los Muertos, or the Mexican Day of the Dead

VOCABULARY:
Proboscis: the long tongue of a butterfly that rolls up into a curl
Metamorphosis: the act of changing forms from one to another
Chrysalis: a sac that encompasses the caterpillar as it metamorphs into a butterfly
Pupation: the chrysalis stage of a butterfly when the caterpillar is encompassed by a casing lasting 9-15 days
Larvae: the caterpillar stage
Molting: the shedding of the outer skin or shell or exoskeleton
Milkweed:  a poisonous plant that the monarchs and caterpillars feed on making them distasteful to enemies such as birds and other insects
Host plant:  plant that is necessary to feed on for growth before a caterpillar forms a chrysalis–the milkweed for a monarch
Migration: the act of transporting from one place to another
A Thermal:  as the sun heats the ground and the ground heats the air, the air rises
Thermal mass:  clusters of monarchs that cling to tree trunks that serve as a giant water bottle
Lepidopterist:  one who studies butterflies

BEFORE AND AFTER THE PROGRAM:
-Learn about the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail:  www.jimmycarter.info and how to join.
-Learn who Rosalynn Carter is.
-Review the life cycle of a monarch.
-What makes monarchs so special from other butterflies?
-Write a story about the first one to spot a monarch as it migrates to Mexico
-Write a story about a monarch’s journey
-Make a container garden for the monarchs.  Find information on the www.jimmycarterinfo site on how to do this.  Or visit your local garden center or nature center for help.
-Discuss how important habitat is to the monarchs and other butterflies and what we can do to help create and preserve monarch habitats.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
The Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail:  A Journey to Plains by Annette Wise with Rosalynn Carter c2015
The Spirit of Butterflies:  Myth, Magic, and Art by Maraleen Manos-Jones, Harry N Abrams Inc. c2000
The Great Monarch Butterfly Chase by RWN Prior, Bradbury Press, c 1993
Magnificent Monarchs by Linda Glaser, Millbrook Press, c2000
Harry and the Monarch by Antoine O’Flatharta, Alfred A Knopf, c2005
Monarch Butterflies:  Mysterious Travelers by Bianca Lavies, Dutton Children’s Books, c1992
NOVA;  the Monarch Butterfly Movie narrated by Stockard Channing
An Extraordinary Life:  The Story of A Monarch Butterfly by Laurence Pringle, Orchard Books, c1997
https://www.playgroundequipment.com/butterflies-in-your-playground/

MONARCH WEBSITES:

ROSALYNN CARTER WEBSITES:

TECHNICAL NEEDS FOR THE SHOW:
Clean, clear space.  Audience seated on the floor.  Access to an outlet.  Someone to run sound cues.  Table for props.

CURRICULAR CONNECTIONS:
GPS: S2L1a, 11  ELACCKR1, 11 ELACC1R1, 11  ELACC2R1, 11  SS2CG3