If I Were A Butterfly, I Would Spread …

While being patient in waiting for our soon-to-be butterflies to emerge, we immerse ourselves in experiencing in many ways to develop more understanding. In this way, experiential learning enables us to process our thoughts through experiences.

Lukah engages his senses and perceptions to process what is happening at the moment with the chrysalides. Similarly to Emily, she pinches the beads with her fingers, rubs them in between her palms, prior to sharing her expression gleefully.

With the aid of materials, we further illustrate the possibilities of colours of the wings. Water colour is one of the media to explore. Painting butterflies in watercolour is enjoyable, but it does take some time to see the colours we like, so patient is indeed required during this process art.

Painting with watercolour allows us to experiment with two or three colours. Watching how they blend together as they dry to create different shades of colours is therapeutic. So much of experiencing watercolour is about layering, knowing when the paper is wet but not too wet, when it is the right moment to add another wash.

We benefit from observing simple shapes such as vertical, horizontal lines, circles, and squares. As we progress our writing skills, we encourage ourselves to write simple words from observations. It builds our familiarity toward the association between the narrative and the written words.

Margo shares her thought about her being a butterfly in the chrysalis stage. She surrounds herself with the hammock for a while, prior to slowly opening it up. Margo makes a connection between the stage of emerging butterflies and her understanding in this way. We are often fascinated with the insect life we see around us. We use our enthusiasm as an opportunity to explore the many fascinating things about the world of insects. including metamorphosis, one of the most interesting characteristics. 

Journeying into the world of poetry is one of our many ways to understand this concept of metamorphosis. Brain research shows that multiple areas in our brain are activated when we see print, hear music, and move. Fides comes up with his poem, after giving some time to think about, If I were a butterfly, I would spread seed.

Poetry inspires our imagination and builds our literacy skills with rhyme and rhythm.
It is an important form of creative expressions of complex feeling and experiences. As mentioned by Vivaan and Margo, If I were a butterfly, I would (like to) spread happiness. Poetry helps us appreciate simple ideas through figurative language and gain a deeper understanding of stories outside of our own life experiences. 

We encounter a big word ecosystem when we read Be A Tree by Maria Gianferrari. To bring this word closer to our understanding, it requires us to peel layer by layer delicately. We refer to a page whereby we can process through its illustrations.

We attempt to understand how our actions make an impact on others. During our group discussion, we learn that everything is connected, from birds, insects, fish, dirt, and trees to ourselves. Even we understand that our actions to cut trees for many things in our life such as building our homes require follow-ups to plant more trees. As Fides highlights, If we cut the trees, we (actually) cut animals' homes. Once Vivaan hears, he agrees and further reiterates, If we cut and we plant (again), it is better. 

We come up with our planning to do our small little effort by saving some seeds from our melon fruit. Lukah, being attentive, engages a tweezer to separate seeds from the pulp and flesh. He further lays the seeds out on the kitchen towel, prior to planting them. 

An ecosystem's health depends on a delicate balance among us and the environment. In this sense, we learn to include cooking as one of our learning experiences to understand more about an ecosystem's health. This time round, we include easy curry chickpeas to be part of our healthy diet in fiber, protein, and fats. By learning our way around the kitchen and preparing meals can instill healthy eating behaviors. 

Kindest.
Children & Friends.