Good Evening,
I write as I process week 3 of summer programs and day two of Little Labs for Big Imaginations. This is my 30th year working with kids (phew) and from time to time something happens and I think, “Hmmm. I probably should send a brief note.”
Today we focused on a pun, “Water we Sea-ing” (What are we seeing?) and did several exercises with ocean themes, including the way whales feed in groups through a process of bubbles and baleen. They blow bubbles to get fish to circulate in schools and then rise to the surface with their mouths open taking in as much as they can before going under the water to digest. We noted that kayaks, on occasion, have been taken in during a feeding but the throats are too small and they quickly get spit out. We showed a video of this to show why, and then, upon request, kids wanted to see another (which I didn’t preview). In this video…a woman filming her friends on their kayak expressed words while she was filming. You heard the woman saying shoot…shoot…shoot…and then the double oo’s were replaced with an “I”, a word not appropriate for class.
I made it a teachable moment, as several birds were flying over the scene, too, and I asked them why birds would be at the scene. “Because they want the fish. They’re also hungry.” Correct. We asked why kayakers would want to watch whales feeding and they said because it was interesting. I then asked them to describe the sounds the birds made to communicate with each other (which they made, too) and finished with, “Sometimes when big people are startled, they use words to express their surprise and they don’t monitor their best behavior.” Birds and humans both make noise to communicate.
I tried to subdue it as quick as possible and was able to keep the stories of other incidents the kids wanted to share where adults in their lives slipped with bad language. Many hands were up and they were anxious to share….but we moved on (and I wiped sweat from my brow).
I write this note, however, simply because in 30 years of teaching, this was a first with elementary-aged kids. I have PLENTY of high school stories I could share, but I’ll save them for when you have high schoolers in your home. I write with an apology in case this “story” made it on the trip home after you asked, “What interesting thing happened at camp today?” I never know how such narratives leave a classroom space or find their way to the dinner table and to parental ears.
If it comes up in conversation, please let the little lab folks know that Dr. Crandall shared a note about the bad word expressed by a filmmaker at the end of the whale-feeding video. If this email piqued your interest, there are videos of the phenomenon and I promise most don’t have the colorful word at the end. It is interesting, really. Nature. The bubbling process. Our species filming whales feeding.
What a curious world.
Bryan
