By Teacher Sophie
They are born and raised at school, some of them were found in the garden of the nursery. They are born as caterpillars from average eggs, fed on fresh leaves and ripened in cocoons. They are the moths and butterflies of OISCA!
Every class from Nursery to Year 2 at OISCA has a year long project. The topic of this year is “Movement”. Usually project work consists of research on a chosen topic. This is where when children practice the formulation of thoughts in English, and explore what aspects of the topic are interesting for them. Here they practiced various art techniques to sketch caterpillars and cocoons using watercolors, liners, pencils. Additionally, they made butterflies with glue paint on film or modeled them with clay. Kids even made up dances and songs to tell others about their discoveries. Weekly conversations on the subject were held. Questions from the teacher, prompts the students to think deeply about nature and animal lifestyles. They develop speaking skills, artistic thinking and most importantly-they learn logic patterns, expressing ideas, and how to be self confident.
This year the K2 Sky class worked on creating a butterfly farm with both brought caterpillars and those which were found in the school garden! They learned about a caterpillar's life cycle and observed, how they eat and grow and then change into a cocoon. The kids were excited to be the first to see some species hatching out. Also they practiced various techniques to model each stage of a butterfly's life and discussed what butterflies do in the cocoon, what they eat when they fly away and even whether or not they have friends and what they think about.
This big variety of events and activities about butterflies lives made the children apply all their skills and knowledge in learning how to treat animals and develop communication skills.
