As a school-based COTA I am always looking for new, meaningful, and interesting ways to bring nature together with occupational therapy to engage students and provide them with meaningful experiences. A few years ago, I started raising monarchs at home and found that it was an exciting, educational, and enlightening experience. I decided I would take a few to school and let our students experience what this was like to release them. The response was overwhelming.

Each student became very invested in and involved with this experience. I found it to encompass leisure as well as caregiving and educational roles. I saw the students develop caring and nurturing attitudes towards the butterflies. I felt this was a role they didn’t often get to experience, and, in turn, it gave them a sense of pride and contributed to a positive self-image, thus contributing to positive mental health. As we went on, this experience became a meaningful routine, ritual, and role for the students.

In addition, this activity serves as an excellent rapport-building activity. As they all hatch between late August and early October, it is a perfect beginning-of-year activity to build rapport with students. Building rapport is an extremely important part of a successful therapy experience and paves the way for trust and connection that allow meaningful therapeutic support for students.

In just a few short years, we have gone from raising 5 or 6 monarchs to 40 in 2025. Each year, the students become more invested and ask regularly about how the monarchs are doing and when we will be able to do it again. As we have gone on, they have come to expect that we will release butterflies every year. To my surprise, everyone started becoming invested. In most science classes, the life cycle is the first unit of the year. There we were, then, contributing to a valuable educational experience.

Suddenly, I was taking entire classes out because they had just finished a unit on the life cycle of monarchs. Then, very naturally, the one student I went to pick up became the class leader. Another role our students very rarely, if ever, get to experience. Then, other teachers came to join us, and then administrators. Our students were pictured participating in this activity and featured in slide shows that were broadcast daily in the school building.

These experiences then also contributed to positive self-esteem and mental health.
More updates to come regarding monarchs and how our garden project is helping to support our monarchs by planting food for them. We are also planting vegetables to support students with fine motor, independent living and cooking goals. A special thank you goes out to Shiri Akrish OTD/L, and Clare Nicholson, PT, DPT, CCS, Sendero therapists, for their support and encouragement with the monarch project. We never thought something so small would make such a big impact, but we’re thankful it did.

Helen McDonnell COTA/L