Caterpillars & Butterflies

We had a team in from John’s Creek United Methodist in Georgia for a week at the beginning of the month. They worked in the school, on roofs in the community and on one of the playgrounds. As I work in the schools, I helped with the education portion on Tuesday morning. They went to all 3 schools during the week and went into each of the preschool classes with the book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” to read the story and then do some crafts with them. They were very optimistic with (I believe) 4 possible crafts to do in each class. We ended up doing 2 in each room, one to create a caterpillar and one to create a butterfly. They were fun ideas and I know that the kids loved them. From big paper ring caterpillars, coffee filter and marker butterflies with pipe cleaner antenna, to caterpillar necklaces to glue on color butterflies. It was fun to see them and work with them in the rooms.

paper ring caterpillars

coffee filter butterfly

caterpillar necklace (comes with smiley face on the red bead!)

I’ve found that that is one of the best ways for groups to come in to work in the schools. A specific idea is needed and when it is focused around a book or story I think it also helps kids get interested in reading and the library (libraries in Haiti are very rare. Nadege says she thinks the number can fit on one hand!) The kids of course love to do crafts and they don’t have a lot of opportunity to do so. Groups bring down most of the supplies that they need since they can be hard to come by here and often the prep work is done in the states (not all of it by any means). One of my favorite parts is to watch the volunteers read it in English and the translators then transform it into French/Creole. Our translators are great and seem to enjoy working with the kids as well. Some of them were actually students in HOM schools—so they know how it’s done.