by Beth Hutchinson
for the Pathfinder
February 12, 1998
"Wow!...That's cool!...I feel like I'm deep in the ocean....This is
neat..." Fourth graders' reactions crisscrossed like piling jackstraws
as they expressed their amazement with how they felt standing under eighteen
sizeable, stuffed whales Friday afternoon.
Once these invited guests from Mrs. Gordon's room were seated, still with
necks stretching and heads tipped back, Kathleen Thompson's eighteen second
and third graders stood under their respective creatures and one by one
shared their research on orca and blue whales.
After several reports about the size, structure and eating habits of these
immense sea-living mammals, Jarod Casano took a different tilt and talked
about one relationship between whales and people. Among the whales, "Orcas
are the stars. People like to go to shows to see them perform."
A bit later, Rio Sherman elaborated, "Orcas sometimes give people big
whale kisses."
Feather Sherman, Rio's mother, conceived the idea for the whale models when
she was asked to substitute for Thompson two weeks earlier. "Kathleen
often lets me do art projects when I sub," said Sherman, a professional
artist. "I knew that the class had been studying whales for a while
and thought that it would be neat to work large and do a huge mural, but
then I thought there might be problems with who would get to take it home.
That's when I thought of individual whales. The kids could work as large
as they wanted, and we could make them 3-D by using paper and stappling
and stuffing the shapes."
"My husband Rick came up with the idea for using the fabric and sewing
them so that the kids could use them for pillows or hangings at home. The
kids got to chose which method they wanted."
Given that this was no small effort, "It was great working in the milti-purpose
room with lots of other parents helping," reflected Sherman.
The students liked the fact that parents were in helping, too. Eric Ferdinand,
Alycia Miller, Steve Pitman and Jacob Wayne each commented on needing and
liking the help parents offered. "It was fun having them there. It
made things that looked hard at first turn out to be easy," said Wayne.
The whale lasted for about a month and included a variety of activities,
including research using books, Internet material, a video and a tape of
whale sounds. Students used the school's long hallways to measure whale
lengths and developed dictionaries of whale terms.
Travis Wendell liked "the idea that baleen whales have two holes and
tooth whales have one hole," while Amber Wahl thought it was impressive
that "blue whales' tongues weigh as much as an elephant."
Thompson's efforts to make learning interesting were appreciated by Raymond
Castonguay, "I like units better than other ways."
"They are fun," added Timothy Pratt.
Yes, "FUN" was the operative word uttered by each second and third
grader in Thompson's class. The unit was fun. Making the stuffed models
was fun. Coloring and painting were especially fun. And working with the
parents was fun.
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