Visit from the Butterfly Pavilion

This afternoon, the children were treated to one of the highlights of our summer arthropod unit, a visit from the Butterfly Pavilion. The Butterfly Pavilion has the distinction of being the nation's first stand alone non-profit invertebrate zoo. It features more than 1,600 free flying butterflies, more than thirty five species of arthropods, and a tide pool showcasing other invertebrates.
For our classroom, Dorothy, a volunteer with the Butterfly Pavilion's acclaimed Outreach Program, presented their Summer Bug Safari program to the children. Spirits were high all morning in anticipation of the impending visit. When it was time to gather as a group to view the insects, the children sat with rapt attention as Dorothy reviewed the basic characteristics of all arthropods, explained the difference between carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores, and explained the terms habitat, decomposer, and scavenger. Then, she showed the children some amazing examples of preserved exoskeletons.
The presentation began with a visit from a reticent hermit crab,
followed by the largest centipede I have ever seen.

Then, the children were treated to a visit from a gregarious millipede with forty legs,

and several Madagascar hissing cockroaches. The children were allowed to touch the cockroaches, to feel their hard exo-skeletons and hear the unique hissing sound they produce by forcing air through their spiracles.

While our study of arthropods concentrated heavily upon insects and their important role as pollinators, the predictable highlight of the presentation is always the arachnids. The children were treated to an up-close view of a Black Widow Spider and a scorpion- the latter was met with stifled gasps and a refrain of "I've never seen a real scorpion before," (to which our amused and gracious guest guest responded "How lucky that I brought one then").

Finally, it was time for the appearance of Rosie, the Chilean Rose Tarantula (or one of her numerous doppelgangers), the star of the show.

Ask any child who has been to the Butterfly Pavilion before for the highlight of their trip, and you are likely to get one answer: holding Rosie the tarantula. Unfortunately, when the Butterfly Pavilion came to the school last year, Rosie was in the process of molting and feeling too temperamental to be safely fondled by a classroom of preschoolers; this year, we were in luck- Rosie was amenable. Dorothy gave the children some quick instructions as to how to safely hold Rosie and tried to alleviate any fears the children might have had.

Then, to the great surprise of our guest, every child in the classroom willingly invited Rosie to crawl across their little palms and give them an arachnid "high five" with her furry little legs.

At the end of the presentation, our thoughtful guest took a few moments to ask me about the school and inquire into Dr. Montessori's theories about behavior and guidance. "The children were so well behaved," she remarked (to my visible delight). "Dr. Montessori believed strongly in the importance of instructing children in grace and courtesy," I explained proudly. We spent a few moments discussing how little attention is often given to these skills, despite the fact that most research shows that impulse control, the ability to delay gratification, and teaching children pro-social behaviors are among the most important skills we teach them, and the very foundation of future academic success.

For my part, I couldn't help but think, the presentation embodied the ideals of a Montessori education: our job is to present the world to children in a way which will arouse their interest, curiosity, and admiration.

We would like to sincerely thank Dorothy, our kind and knowledgeable guest, and the Butterfly Pavilion for bringing this amazing program to our school. For more information about the Butterfly Pavilion, please visit their website at: http://www.butteflies.org/.

The Importance of the Outdoor Prepared Environment to the Life Sciences

This past week, the children discovered this little character living amongst the zucchini in our garden (perhaps this is one of the little praying mantis's we hatched and released at the beginning of the summer?). Our animated guest was a good sport; he spent the morning in the classroom observation terrarium, then dutifully walked across their little hands at line time, and entertained the fascinated children by bravely defending himself by waving his little arms frantically about before fluttering off.

Watching the children with their insect companion really clarified the importance of the outside prepared environment. Young children are consummate naturalists; as Montessori noted, they are "sensorial explorers" who absorb every aspect of their environment. Providing children with the opportunity to interact daily with the plants and animals that surround them is an essential part of the child's experience as it affords them with the opportunity to carefully observe natural phenomena (the changing of seasons, the lifecycles of plants and animals, the importance of pollinators, a food chain, and an ecosystem).

The Montessori method of education sees education as a natural, spontaneous process in which children actively construct and refine their understanding of abstract concepts by scaffolding the information around meaningful experiences, rather than treating children as if they were empty vessels to be filled with memorized facts and accumulated wisdom.

It is experiences like these, in the natural environment, with living creatures, that serve to reconnect children with nature, to spark their interest in the natural sciences and the world around them, and to provide children with an authentic Montessori education in the natural sciences.

Our children have been lucky to have had many such visitors.

We are extremely fortunate to have a beautiful outdoor prepared environment, replete with mature trees, beautiful butterflies, friendly rabbits, grape vines which are just beginning to turn purple, apple trees laden with with fruit just beginning to show the first blush of fall, and the occasional slug or interesting insect. These daily hands on experiences (collecting fallen apples, running out to the garden to surreptitiously taste the grapes, or gathering vegetables and herbs from the garden), help to bring the children in touch with the natural environment and draw their attention to the changing of the seasons and the lifecycles of plants and animals in a way that no other "lesson," or an over-groomed playground, ever could.

Not surprisingly, given the excitement generated by our outdoor prepared environment, the weekly CSA share, the vegetable garden, raising butterflies, ladybugs, and praying mantises, and field trips to the CSA farm and the apiary, the botany and life sciences works inside the classroom have also seen a flurry of activity.

Once the children have had real, meaningful, concrete experiences, the carefully prepared classroom materials help to deepen the child's understanding of the more abstract princples and concepts involved and allow the children to actively construct meaning from their experiences. This is particularly important in assisting young children in their understanding of botany and the life sciences.

I have to admit to having fallen a little behind in posting photographs about what we have been up to. Over the past few months, the children have busied themselves with carefully dissecting flowers,

making "Parts of the Plant" and "Parts of the Flower" booklets,

working with botany puzzles,

pressing flowers,

producing naturalist drawings and watercolour paintings,

and learning to recognize and appreciate different fruits and vegetables.

The children particularly enjoyed matching the set of knitted vegetables my assistant made, matching 3 Part Cards of different fruits and vegetables,

sorting miniature vegetables,

and reading about vegetables and how they are grown.

Then, there were the mounted specimens of honeybees, and other arthropods, to examine,the wooden candlestick holders to paint,

and the beeswax candles to fashion.

There were "Honey Circles" to be baked (imagine a light, golden cookie that is a perfect combination of sweet and salty- made with only six ingredients- whole wheat flour, salt, vanilla, oil, honey, and sunflower seeds). This is one of my favorite baking projects both due to both the absolute simplicity of the ingredients and the fact that it incorporates both honey and sunflower seeds, making a great project to supplement both the unit on pollinators and parts of a flower.

And, of course, there was the zucchini to be grated,

baked into fragrant mini loaves,

wrapped and tied by the older children (who practiced their bow tying),

and taken home to share with mom and dad.

Finally, there were seeds to collect and investigate. The children were very interested in examining the structure of different seeds and in sorting them based upon their different methods of dispersal (that they have structural differences in design which facilitate their travel in wind, in water, by hitching a ride on animals, by being eaten by animals, and using mechanical properties of the seed pod).

It is such a pleasure to watch young children in the process of investigating the world around them.