SILKWORM SATURDAY

In my first years of teaching at Broadous Elementary, 

I was introduced to silkworms.

Amazing, fast growing worms.

If you are going to have live animals in your classroom,

you can't act like you're scared of them in front of students.

I quickly learned to get over any fears of handling those squishy worms.

Every school in LAUSD at one time had a mulberry tree on campus.

The leaves would be used to feed silkworms so that teachers could use them to teach.

Unfortunately, the newer schools, where I taught, did not have mulberry trees.

Last year, I transferred to a school over hundred years old.

There was a mulberry tree!

My friend Loribeth hooked me up with some silkworms

and it was like magic all over again!

With a simple silkworm and mulberry tree,

students can watch the entire life span of a living creature!

Last year, I saved the eggs, 

and this spring, we hatched them!

Sadly, none of baby silkworms survived.

I thought it was over. 

I blew my chance. 

(Next year I'll order butterfly caterpillars I thought)

It's not the same teaching about metamorphosis using a book.

A video is better, but nothing beats having the chance to witness it first hand.

Today I went to a science symposium.

I miss teaching science like I did at Alexander.

I miss the resources in Exposition Park.

I wanted to learn more about NGSS (new science standards)

and I wanted to be inspired!

I was... and I found silkworms!

First-hand experiences...
Investigations...
Understanding overtime...

One of my workshop session had silkworms!
Teachers got a cup with each stage of a silkworm: eggs to silkworm to pupa to adult!
I was hoping I'd get to take it with me back to class.
Turns out we could!

Turns out some teachers didn't want their silkworms and
the presenter had lots of extra ones,
so......

guess who got to take them home?
BINGO! I felt like I hit the jackpot!

Experiences matter!

Now my class will be able to use silkworms to...

-learn from

-ask questions about

-conduct research on

-observe and record data on

-investigate for an extended amount of time

-develop oral vocabulary from

It's magic when you allow children to investigate and let them do the work.

They will make their own discoveries and draw their own conclusions.

Learning comes from first hand experiences.

This experience will be one they will not likely forget.

How do I know?

I remember my first experience with silkworms nearly 30 years ago.

#Experience Matters!