Adding Life
Dear Friends-
The Downstairs released 27 butterflies on Thursday, and cheered each one as they took wing in the open air for the first time. The kids had watched them change from caterpillar to chrysalis to adult butterfly over the prior weeks, and they were proud that so many had made it through this process. We named each one in spanish as it flew away from the netting of the butterfly farm: “Good luck Uno! Bye-bye Dos! Yay Tres! Bon Voyage Quatro!”
Some of the butterflies flew straight towards the 48 fresh plantings nearby, which were adorned with signs written in crayon and marker on laminated colored paper by the downstairs children. They had named and labeled every one of the saplings that will one day form a small orchard and wild garden in front of our playground.
Later in the day, the Downstairs students made their way up the front steps to a lemonade stand set up by Alice and her Forest Room students who had been learning about adding and subtracting decimals and were practicing with fake money. They handed out plastic coins and faux dollars, and eagerly made change and poured delicious lemonade for students and staff alike. They were “selling” the lemonade to raise awareness for a local animal shelter (Crate Escape) and they are hoping parents, family, and friends will be inspired to match the $47.28 in fake money they collected with a real money donation to a shelter.
Meanwhile the Creek Room and Sun Nook students have been eagerly heading upstairs each morning to count how many chicks have hatched in the incubator. I just counted 10 brown, grey, and yellow fluffballs chirping away under the heating lamp upstairs!
It is a week of numbers here at Randolph School. I suppose the springtime is a season of change, and it only makes sense to be adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. In many ways, the essence of change often seems mathematical as we gain and lose things over time. The caterpillars metamorphose and fly away as butterflies, while the eggs crack apart to reveal a new cuddly group of chicks. Just in this note alone, I count 85 new forms of life at our school this week, and $47.28 of goodwill and love. Not a bad week’s work.
Easily the biggest addition this week, however, has been the birth of Esme Lyman Duffy yesterday to our wonderful teacher Liz Gokay-Duffy. Congratulations Liz and Eric!!! We send you and your beautiful daughter all the warmth and love in the world!
Be well,
Ben