Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Work As Fun

scienceprojectlab.com
The second graders I work with are studying insects. Jars containing monarch butterfly chrysalises line one counter. A large glass case filled with flowers and a small dish of sugar water sits on a table, waiting for the butterflies to emerge. Three monarchs already flutter there. By tomorrow two more should make an appearance, much to the delight of the students. They've been charting the progress from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly for weeks now. Fred, Boo, Sun, Rocky, and Bob will be set free on Friday to make their way in the wilds of the school playground.

The class has also been studying grasshoppers and crickets. One of their assignments was to make a list of things that hop or jump. We'd just conducted a grasshopper jumping contest and set up a cricket colony. I expected those two bugs would be listed. What I didn't expect was the innovative spelling, though these tots are beginning second graders. In case you didn't know, the following not only exist, they can hop and jump with the best of them:

cirkits
chipmorks
flying squals
hoses
goots
some fishees

and, of course,

grashogers

easyvectors.com

Thanks Hilary!


17 comments:

Brian Miller said...

haha...love their list...that gave me a huge smile...i love kids....

Hilary said...

Kids are always a day-brightener. Love these.. thanks for sharing them.

Kerry said...

Hoses! Flying squals! I love this.

molly said...

Too bad we squash all that creative spelling out of them!

red dirt girl said...

Sweet!
xxx

JeannetteLS said...

Molly, not to mention all the bugs, too! Oh, this brings me back to BEING in second grade, lo more than 50 years ago. We had the same monarch butterfly project. Then one of my first jobs out of school was as a "special" Elementary school aide. Basically I got to work with ALL the ages and help with projects and writing. It was in the days of overhead projectors and I did a three part ink monarch butterfly life cycle.

Those projects made me happy as a child, especially running around catching the bugs. Clearly you enjoy your kids, don't you! thank you for giving me the perfect entry with which to end my day.

TexWisGirl said...

too sweet! congrats on your POTW!

Flea said...

I agree, this gave me a huuuggee smile too :0)

Hilary said...

Thanks for the POTW recommendation. I will be sure to include it as your choice for next week. :)

Elizabeth Grimes said...

Fishees...too cute! Congrats on your POTW!

Out on the prairie said...

What, no jumping beans?Congrats on the POTW Pauline.I love your hands on lesson.

Anonymous said...

Love it! And what a fun project, especially seeing it through their eyes (and creative spelling!)

Anonymous said...

There should always be a critter in the classroom named Bob. Why? I don't know. There just should!
Flying squals is my favorite!
Congrats on the POTW. :)

Joanna Jenkins said...

What a great list! It made me smile.
xo jj

Pauline said...

Thanks, everybody. Working with the kids and hearing their unique take on life is what I'll miss most when I retire. I'm writing down all the funny things they say (should have been doing that for years!) and will have posting material for a good long while ;)

Barbara said...

My children went to school on an old farm. They both thoroughly enjoyed the unit on monarch butterflies in the second grade. Their wildlife studies were as important as anything else they learned in those early years. My daughter still doesn't spell well, but she has a natural curiosity and sense of adventure about learning that continue to serve her well, even in her studies to become a nurse practitioner at Columbia.

Pauline said...

Barbara - "correct" spelling is a way of streamlining reading and communication. If we all spell words the same way, it's easier to understand and convey their meanings. We've only been learning to spell "correctly" for a few hundred years. There's no reason spelling can't be a lesson incorporated in every class. There are distinctions in spelling that can cause problems, such as principle and principal, bough and bow, bow and beau, way and weigh - the list is long. Learning to spell correctly is not impossible, just annoying, but it pays off when you want to communicate effectively. When kids spell creatively it offers fodder for posts like this one; when adults misspell words, they risk being labeled as not well educated by professors and professionals who do spell correctly. With online dictionaries and thesauruses available on virtually every computer (and paper editions still selling well in bookstores), proper spelling is within everyone's reach.