April 11 was Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the beginning of Holocaust Remembrance Week. Every year, students in Jill Lively’s class at
Mandarin Oaks Elementary study World War II and the Holocaust by reading various chapter-level books in literature circles.
This year, to begin their study, Lively read her fifth-grade class The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco. After discussing the symbolism of the butterfly, students chose a word that they felt represented the butterfly such as hope, faith, mortality, etc., and wrote about it.
Students then painted Styrofoam butterflies to be displayed during the school’s Week of the Arts from May 17-21. Following the students’ Evening with the Arts on May 20, the 30 butterflies, along with a picture of the students with their butterflies, are going to be mailed to the National Holocaust Museum in Houston, Texas.
In an effort to remember the 1.5 million children who died in the Holocaust, the National Holocaust Museum in Houston is collecting 1.5 million butterflies handmade by children to go on display for their Spring 2013 exhibit. At this time, the museum has collected an estimated 400,000. More information on the Butterfly Project can be viewed on their Web site,
www.hmh.org.
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