gmh Today, Fall 2024 issue, “The Gift of a Life Cycle,” by Lisa Catterall.
I was training elementary teachers on how to deliver the Next Generation Science Standards, and was asked. “When do they learn that some animals are called amphibians, some mammals, and all of that now?”
I thought for a moment about how to answer that without using a lot of jargon. I said, “We are teaching big ideas and skills now. When you teach about life cycles, you teach that all things have them, why they are important, and that they look different for these groups called amphibians, mammals, butterflies, or even trees, flowers and sea jellies.”
One activity I gave the third grade teacher to use for this is a spinning wheel the students create, where all the different forms of an organism throughout its life cycle can be artistically rendered and spun around in a circle. Suddenly, a wheel for the cycle of a school year flashed in front of me.
One of my mentor teachers described September as “the gift of starting a new cycle.” One of the miracles of the school year is annual renewal. Whatever happened during the previous cycle can be built upon or tossed aside, elevated or buried, and new things can be planned and created.
This is just as true for students. Read more
