It's Hard to Let Our Children Go

Mrs. Haney's first grade class also had butterflies they had raised that were ready to release.  Actually the butterflies were more than ready.  The rainy weather had kept us and them inside.  Now it was time.

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Before we go out, Ms. Flaherty, our naturalist volunteer, asks the kids if they wonder anything about what will happen to the butterflies. The answers come flying in.

"I wonder where their homes will be."

"I wonder if they have sticky feet so they can stay on plants the way they stick on the top of their cage."

"I wonder if they are going to a better place than this classroom."

"Well, they are going to the place they are meant to be--outside," says Ms. Flaherty.

"

"Let's line up," says Ms. Haney.  

And, off we go.

Once we're in the outdoor classroom, Ms. Flaherty unzips the butterflies' home.  Suddenly one flies out and...

  

right onto Ms. Goodman's (our author-in-resident's) hand.  While this Painted Lady is getting ready for its next move, the kids say their goodbyes in the form of wishes.

"I hope you live a happy life."

"I hope God makes you food."

"Thank you, butterfly," Ms. Haney adds, "for allowing us to help you grow. It was a privilege to have you in our classroom."

Then, it flies out into the world!

Finally the only ones left in the cage are the two born with injured wings.  We decide to put them down gently on a flowering bush nearby.

"The injured ones are going to live a harder life," says Ms. Flaherty, "but we'll give them the best change we can."

"I like to think of them as survivors," said Ms. Haney.

Then all the first graders walked to the bush and watch their last two butterflies settle on a place, hopefully to live and thrive.

Goodbye, butterflies.

Goodbye, Butterfly

It often takes a while for any important occasion to take place.  This was true for the release of the butterflies flying from Ms. Hicks' first grade classroom into their new outside home.

While they were waiting, the kids reflected upon how they felt about saying goodbye.

"I'm happy," said Adam, "because the butterflies are going to find a whole new world out there."

"I'm happy and sad," said his friend.  "Sad because I wanted them to stay with us, but happy because this means they can go make other butterfly friends."

 

Finally it was time.

Songs were sung.

"Caterpillar, caterpillar, what do you say?

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle all of the day!"

Dances were danced and then...

Good wishes and butterfly-decorated noisemakers sent the butterflies on their way.

In a moment, they were gone. 

We Read, We See, We Learn

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Ms. Hick's first grade class has been studying the life cycle of the butterfly.  

Just is case this is new to you, it starts with a butterfly laying eggs, which eventually hatch into caterpillars.  The caterpillars eat and grow.  When it's time for them to transform, they they spin a chrysalis around themselves to stay protected.  Finally the new butterfly breaks out into the world of sun, flowers, food, and more butterflies.  

The kids learned about this marvelous transformation in many ways.  They read about it, of course.  Ms. Hicks explained the facts. They also experienced the best kind of learning.  They watched the process with their own eyes!

They had a butterfly garden.

They could watch the caterpillars eat and grow.

 

They could see the caterpillars spin their protective sacs.  They also got to see them hatch!

What's next?

Inch by Inch

The Garden Song starts with the chorus: 
"Inch by inch, row by row,
Gonna make this garden grow."

Learning works much the same way.  A new idea or lesson or observation builds upon the last, then another and another.  That's how we learn and acquire knowledge.  Ironically the way Ms. Hicks' first grade class applied this type of learning has been with plants and gardens.

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First they explored their senses.  One thing they thought about is how they can use all their senses to learn about something.

Smelling beautiful scents and seeing bright colors is a plus, especially when your next science unit is about plants.  Of course, it's also important to learn how plants get the energy and nutrients they need to grow.

The kids' senses came into play again as their unit moved to learning about water and watched different ways that it moves.  Grownups might think of these processes as the hydrologic cycle and osmosis; those words are fine, too.

Then it was time to put all these ideas and lessons together and into action--a test, an experiment.  The kids put one group of white flowers into a cup of regular water just to see what would happen to the flowers normally (that's called a control group).  They put other white flowers into cups of water tinted by food coloring. WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN?

  

THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!

The kids wrote up their observations.  After all, that's what scientists do.    

Writing a First Book

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First graders have questions.  They also are learning ways to get answers.  Each student in Ms. Hicks' class picked an animal they were interested in.  They read about it, decided what was important to report and wrote it up.
  

 

 They made covers for their work.

 

Then they presented their findings, complete with illustration.

Pick a topic, research it, organize the information, write a draft or two to make it better.  That's the same thing every writer should do--from a first grader up to a National Book Award winner.

 

  

Good work, kids.  Remember, a lot of professional authors don't even do their own illustrations!  

Pitch, Rhythm, and Tempo

Many people remarked that the kids sang so well when they performed our school play, Evacuation Day The Musical.  Why not, we have naturally talented kids attending the Perkins School.

Actually, there's another reason as well.  This is the second year that we've had our music teacher, Ms. Lynch.  That means that the kids have had two years to learn about rhythm, tempo, and pitch as well as how to use them while singing.

Here's a sample class that Ms. Lynch might (and did) do with some first graders:

First come warm ups...

 
Stretching,

 

loosening your muscles including the jaw, 

loosening your vocal chords and clapping out some rhythms to get in the mood.

Then since the kids were clapping, they ended up incorporating those movements into a game.  Or, into a song.  Actually, into a game that includes a song.  Have you ever sang a hand-clapping game called "Mary Mack?"

 

Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack

All dressed in black, black, black

With silver buttons, buttons, buttons [butt'ns]

All down her back, back, back.

She asked her mother, mother, mother

for fifty cents, cents, cents

To see the elephants, elephants, elephants

Jump the fence, fence, fence.

They jumped so high, high, high

they reached the sky, sky, sky

And didn't come back, back, back

Till the the 4th of July, ly, ly!

 

 

Clapping is a natural accompaniment to singing.  Ms. Lynch has shown the kids that reading can be too.  

She had read this class a book called Ming Lo Moves the Mountain before.  She had also taught them where and when to chime in by singing choruses that go along with the story.
 

Now, it's time for the kids' part!

 "Go to the wise man.  Listen very carefully.  He will tell you what to do.  So, go Ming Lo."

It's Never Too Early to Start Planning

The students in Ms. Haney's first grade class have started to think about their future.  Their assignment was to think about the jobs they might want to have when they grow up.  Who knows, things might change between now and then, but here were some of their current thoughts about their careers that interest them.

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Some kids immediately thought of going into professional sports:

 

Others leaned toward medicine:

 

Still others saw their answers right in front of them!

 

 

Then there were the kids who were still keeping their options open:

 

Good luck, first graders.  We hope you all find and fulfill your dreams.

An Author's Visit

Some of our younger kids see Ms. Goodman in the halls or in their classrooms and know she help writes the PerkinsBlog.  They forget, however, that she has another part of her working life.  She writes books; she is an author.  Recently she visited Ms. Haney's first grade class to talk about her "other job."

She explained that all books start with ideas.  Sometimes a publisher, or book company, comes to her with an idea and asks her to write about it.  That's how she came to write about monster trucks, for example.

"These books are fun and I learn a lot," she said, but her favorites are often the books when she came up with the idea herself.  The kids liked the idea behind All in Just One Cookie.  It is actually two stories in one.  The first is a grandmother making chocolate chip cookies for her grandchildren.  Then each time Grandma puts a new ingredient in the bowl, we find out where that butter or chocolate came from.  Did you know that baking soda comes from a giant lake in Wyoming that dried up 50 million years ago?

Ms. Goodman read the kids another book based on one of her own ideas, Nature Did It First.  She showed them a picture of a human using an object or device, say, a woman carrying her baby in a Snugli.  Then the kids could guess what animal carries her baby this way--a kangaroo!  

Here Ms. Goodman showed a picture of a boy on skates protected by a helmet, shin guards, and elbow pads.  The caption said, "Armor."  What animal also protects itself with a hard outer core?

The kids had a lot of answers for that one.  Turtles, snails, crabs, beetles. Those were all right answers.  It turned out Ms. Goodman had picked another one for her book, though.  The armadillo!

Finally it was time for the kids to start working on ideas of their own.  Ms. Goodman asked them to come up with ideas for another book: People Did It Second. She showed them pictures of animals doing something and asked them to come up with human equivalents.  For example, in this picture, a mother gorilla has built a nest of branches and leaves for her and her baby to sleep on.  What do people have that is similar?

The kids came up with several ideas.  They also came up with some great ideas for what humans have that works like a pelican's pouch and the emperor penguin's practice of having a few adults taking care of lots of kid penguins.  As you can see, our first graders had many suggestions for that one.  

Good ideas, kids!