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YourHub.com \\ Fort Pierce \\ Stories \\ Education \\ School News

Creatures in the Classroom!

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Contributed by: Linette Trabulsy on 10/21/2009

To celebrate Halloween, we found "Creatures in the Classroom" at St. Anastasia Catholic School in Fort Pierce. Not the creepy or scary kind of Halloween creatures, but the living, breathing and interesting kind of creatures! Many of the classrooms have animals in bowls, tanks and aquariums on display.

The students use these "creatures" as learning opportunities as well as fun. For instance, the second graders in Mrs. Capezza's and Mrs. Alves' 2nd grade class have been listening to the chapter book Mr. Popper's Penguins in class. It is a delightful story of a very untidy house painter named Mr. Popper who loves to study Geography and is particularly intrigued by the icy region of Antarctica. In the story, Mr. Popper writes to an Arctic Expedition and, in return, he receives a real penguin in the mail to care for. As a connection to this Oral Reading selection and to their study of animal habitats, 2nd graders in M-1 received live ants in the mail and created an ant farm! Students were eager to learn more about ants and ways they could care for them. They have fed them and given them water daily. They have also observed the interesting ant habitat and written their observations in their Writing Journals. "Ants are hard workers and they make holes," wrote Griffin Cruse. "Ants like to keep their habitat tidy," wrote Gabby Richards. "Ants like to eat meatballs," wrote Bryce Shevak after feeding them a tiny piece of Mrs. Capezza's meatball from her lunchbox. Mrs. Capezza also commented, "Our ant farm has been a wonderful addition to our classroom. It has given our 2nd graders an opportunity to discuss different animal habitats and has also given them a sense of responsibility in caring for our little creatures."

Another example is in Mrs. Steele's 4th grade where they have a saltwater tank in which soft corals, hard corals, live rock, 3 hermit crabs, one brown tang (tropical fish), one black and white clown fish, and a cleaner shrimp reside. According to Mrs. Steele, the class has a saltwater tank because it teaches the children how to care for creatures commonly found in the Fort Pierce area. The tank has brought the class closer together as they have cared for these animals and they are learning more about saltwater habitats, which is part of the science curriculum. During the 1st week of school, the class named one of the hermit crabs "Jellybean!" The children help clean the tank, feed the fish seaweed/sea veggies, and give them frozen brine shrimp.

Two of St. Anastasia's classrooms have tadpoles! Emma Niemczyk, in Mrs. Russell's 3rd grade class, noticed that a frog in her family's fish pond had laid eggs. She waited until they had hatched and brought in several tadpoles for the classroom!! The 3rd grade is studying life cycles in Science, so the addition of the tadpoles works out beautifully to enforce what the students are learning. The students are still waiting, not so patiently, for the frogs!

Mrs. Schildwachter's 2nd grade class also has tadpoles. Mrs. Schildwachter first brought them in at the end of September and they were very tiny. Everyday the students check to see if they have any back legs growing. They haven't seen any yet, but they think it's getting close since their bodies have been getting bigger. The class hopes to watch them grow all the way to frogs. At that time, they plan to let them go - although, some students are trying to talk Mrs. Schildwachter into sending one home with each of them! In 2nd grade Science, they have an animal unit and "amphibians" is one of the six animal groups that they learn about.

There are some other "creatures" lurking in other classrooms...only they are not ALIVE!

Mrs. Paxton's kindergarten class began its classroom insect collection on October 19. Students brought in dead insects for their classroom collection. They will soon learn about insects and their habitats.

Mrs. Linda Hamilton, the school's Speech Therapist, claims there is a "creature" in her classroom! She says his name is Albert...only he is a stuffed alligator. In addition to decorative purposes, Albert serves therapeutic purposes also. For example, during speech therapy, some of her reluctant speakers sometimes hold Albert and let Albert "say" their speech words. Some of her students in language therapy are working on learning prepositions, so they place Albert in different areas of the room and describe where he is located (e.g., Albert is on the chair. He is under the table).

And last but not least, the "creatures" in Mrs. Odom's 4th grade classroom were constructed similar to Frankenstein! These animated and colorful figurines were created by the students. To explain, 4th grade students Skyler Cripps and Beatrice Reyes wrote this about Room 104's Creatures: "The fourth grade had a very spellbinding writing and art project. Both teachers read us a tale called, "Sideway Stories of Wayside School." The assignment was to make a writing and paper doll about a new scholar from a different place. We were to decorate the doll with portions from magazines. And now for some interviews from Mrs. Odom's class. Beatrice's interview is on George Stanton. She took the eyes from a character from Veggie Tales. She took the mouth from the same character. She made the clothing from patterns and a skateboard. George likes to skateboard, swim and break dance. Genesis' interview is on Selena Heaven. She likes art, singing and reading. Reese's interview is on Lilly. She likes to read and dance."

The 4th graders invite you to "go see the 'creatures' for yourself!"

Located at 401 South 33rd Street in Fort Pierce, St. Anastasia Catholic School serves students in grades Pre-K through 8th grade and is one of 21 schools in the Diocese of Palm Beach. For more information, call (772) 461-2232 or visit the website at www.stanna.org.

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