Second-graders rally around our butterflies

New Hampton Elementary second-graders have been compiling research on a real-world problem that is important to them — disappearing pollinators — since January, and on Friday they called on the community to help save the monarch butterflies.“Matt Crayne from Twin Ponds [Nature Center] visited our classroom and talked about the need for increasing butterfly habitats in Chickasaw County,” said Dawson Monteith during the introduction in Sara Baltes’ room. “So we researched monarch butterflies.”In a video presentation that featured every student reading a few sentences off a scrolling teleprompter, the classes of Janet Heeren, Baltes and Carolyn Nuss shared what they had learned with community members whom they deemed would likely influence others.— For more on this story, see the April 16 New Hampton Tribune.