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. 

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.    

How Do You Learn?

The answer is: Be curious; ask questions. That is how the kindergarten started their science unit on animals.    

Remember, you can click on any picture to make it larger.

So what do inquiring young minds want to learn about animals and their behavior?  Here are just a few examples:

 

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! 

The Worm Farm: Paying a House Call

It's been a while since the red wiggler worms set up housekeeping in Ms. Breneus's kindergarten classroom.  In fact it was time for our gardening expert Ms. Flaherty to check in on them, to make sure they had everything they needed to be healthy and as happy as worms can be.

Off came the cover, so Ms. Flaherty could look at the wigglers.  She wasn't the only one who was curious.  The worms seemed to be okay; they were indeed wiggling.

One boy asked to hold a worm.  He had to learn to be gentle and not squeeze.  

He enjoyed it so much that Ms. Flaherty decided all the kids should have a chance.  Next week, she'll come and the kids will get to look closely at the worms like scientists and learn through observation.  Maybe we can bring some magnifying glasses so they can really get a good peek.

Ms. Flaherty explained that we didn't want the paper to dry out--or, the worms either.  So each student who wanted to could spritz the paper one, two, three times.

As Ms. Flaherty circled the room giving the kids turns, other students drew pictures of their new class pets.  Here is Emanuel's.

Brianna did a fine job too.

Making a Worm Farm

Ms. Murphy's second grade class elected a gecko to be their class pet.  Ms. Breneus's kindergarten class didn't have a choice about what their new pets would be.  Nevertheless, they are very happy. They have hundreds of red wiggler worms.

The Perkins School is a "seed" school for a program named SLUG (Students Learning through Urban Gardening).  Our wonderful volunteer Ms. Flaherty comes in regularly to work with many classes--including the kindergarten.  

You can't grow healthy plants without good soil.  One way to enrich soil is to make compost by letting leaves and old vegetables break down and become rich to soil to mix in with other dirt.  Another is to let worms do the work for you.

The kids set up their worm farm by putting shredded paper into a plastic box.  The worms would live in this paper; it would be like dirt to them.

 

If the worms lived in dry paper, they would dry out themselves.  So the kids added water, spraying it so it would just moisten the paper instead of making puddles.  Not too much.  Not too little.  Just the right amount.

 

Next came the food.  Coffee grounds and apple peels.  This may not sound delicious to you, but the worms love 'em!

Then it was time to move in.  

The worms all started out in the corner, but they don't like the light too much--even once the darker lid was placed on top of their new home.  What would they do?  Where would they go?  We'll have to wait and see.

Goodbye Butterflies!

Just a few days after Mother's Day, the first graders in Ms. Haney's class had a mother type experience themselves. They raised young living things from babyhood until it was time to let their loved ones go out into the world.

It was time to release the Painted Lady butterflies.

The kids brought their goodbye letters to the garden in the schoolyard. They also brought their four butterflies in their mesh container. It was the only home these butterflies had ever known.


















One student after another stepped up to the butterflies to say a formal farewell. Saying goodbye brings up all sorts of feelings.



















Some of the kids were sort of happy to launch the butterflies into the world.
























Others had more mixed feelings.
























Then it was time to let them out. There was a moment when each butterfly was free to go but didn't really know it yet. Suddenly they were all off on the wind.



















It's hard to let go even when you know it's the right thing.

The World in Just One Classroom

If you remember, there's a big geography project going on in (and right outside) Ms. Meadow's room. Since people from all around the world are taking an interest in us by visiting our blog, these third graders are returning the favor. They are researching the countries that have shown up on our visitors list and writing down an amazing fact about each one.


They have learned some impressive things. Here is something Raymond learned about Japan:















It's an amazing fact, but also an amazing looking creature!



Talking about spiky things, Andrea found out about a medical use for needles besides giving shots:














What does that look like? Well, check it out. In China, doctors sometimes use acupuncture instead of drugs when patients have an operation. The needles block the pain completely.

















Meanwhile Molly went to the other side of the world to learn about the country of Brazil. It's a huge country, with a huge and long river called the Amazon. Here is one of the things that interested Molly the most:
















And, why not? Look at this guy!