Butterflies of Hope

Every elementary school tries to work with community institutions as much as possible to give the kiddos some new experiences. We are incredibly fortunate to be right next door to the South Regional Collier County Public Library. They have a beautiful building, huge collection, and plethora of special programs. One program that we were able to see was the "Butterflies of Hope" event. This was open to all of our fifth graders and we took advantage of the opportunity.

We rotated kids through the program, taking one fifth grade class after another. The kids heard a talk from two volunteers who spearheaded the program. They spoke to the kids about the symbolism of butterflies and how they related to the ghettos of Europe during the prelude to WWII. Kids also heard about how butterflies can represent kindness and that we all try to be a bit kinder to each other, making the world a better place.

The kids were very insightful during the discussion with the presenters and after the presentation, the kids walked through the gallery of butterfly art. Some of the art was created by professional artists and some was created by middle school artists from Oak Ridge Middle School. The kiddos were soaking in the meaning as well as the beauty.

Any time we have the opportunity to give kids these experiences, we take them. Experiential learning sticks. While the students may not remember everything that they do in the course of a school day, they will definitely remember the "Butterflies of Hope" project and the impact that it had on them. We are already lining up other opportunities to collaborate with the public library next door. It is an amazing resource and we plan to take full advantage of it.

Reading Champions!

Yesterday, our principal, Tammy Brown, and I got a chance to visit a fourth grade classroom. With trophy in hand, we celebrated Mrs. Hall's class for having the greatest percentage of kids who achieved their reading goals for the second quarter of school. They will keep the traveling trophy in their room all quarter and will get a banner to hang permanently to remind them of their accomplishment. They worked especially hard this quarter because another class won the trophy for the first quarter of the year and they were determined to work a bit harder this quarter.

Our competition is a fun aspect of our school environment. It is a positive, teamwork-oriented slice of life here at Lely Elementary because everyone has to help everyone in order to achieve our goals. We are having a rollicking good time this year and little things like the reading goals competition lend a little fun to our school year.