On a sunny day last week, Mallory Mulcahy’s pre-kindergarten class filed outside to the garden at the Ethel A. Jacobsen Elementary School, in Surf City, for a special occasion: the release of butterflies the students had raised in the classroom. The schoolyard garden, which recently received wildlife habitat certification from the National Wildlife Federation, was the ideal spot to bid farewell and safe journey to the painted lady butterflies.

“During our spring unit, we learned about the butterfly cycle in the PreK4 class,” Mulcahy explained.