Catholic schools create a buzz at Insectarium

By Beth Donze, Kids’ Clarion

On April 27, sixth graders from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Kenner went on a field trip to the Audubon Insectarium with kindergartners and first graders from The Good Shepherd School in New Orleans.

They toured the exhibits, watched a movie and were invited to taste some of the edible creatures.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton sixth grader Parker Guffey (left) reacts to the Insectarium’s model of an eastern carpenter ant. The field trip was the second get-together for the two schools. In March, the St. Elizabeth sixth graders went to Good Shepherd to teach their buddies about the life cycle of butterflies. Together, they created instructional coloring books and paper plates showing the four stages of development. The Good Shepherd students went home with a container of soil and butterfly-attracting plants. St. Elizabeth left behind posters and PowerPoints on the butterfly life cycle, plastic models of each developmental stage, larvae for classroom observation and related books.

Good Shepherd kindergartner Lea Stovall (at far left) pets a giant African millipede handled by Insectarium intern Maggie Hartman.

The field trippers tried their luck at getting butterflies to land on their arms. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School received a service-learning grant from the Joe and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation for the project. (Photos by Beth Donze)