Today my son and I were biking down our street when we discovered a dead sparrow on the road. Sparrows are so common, yet we've grown attached to these little brown birds since hanging a feeder in our backyard. We talked about the dead sparrow: how it may have died and if we should do anything. We had a small box with us, so I scooped it up and we decided to take it home and bury it in the backyard. The poor thing looked so sad and we knew that if we left it on the street, it would just be run over by cars. 
Here's Duncan digging the sparrow's grave. I let him find a spot and he turned up some earth near his sandbox.
I think it's important to not shy away from talking about life cycles with children. Duncan is four and he's interested in talking about animals and what happens when they die. Three of our classroom Beta fish have died within two weeks and he saw me get rid of them.
Here's the sparrow in the ground. I think it's best to respect the intelligence of children and not shy away from discussing death. At the beginning of the school year, our classroom gerbil died suddenly in front of the class. We all left crying that day (including myself). I wouldn't want any class of mine to go through a traumatic experience like that again, yet the death of Rosie the gerbil really brought our class together and I learned early on in the school year that my students were caring, sensitive kids.
Today my son and I were biking down our street when we discovered a dead sparrow on the road. Sparrows are so common, yet we've grown attached to these little brown birds since hanging a feeder in our backyard. We talked about the dead sparrow: how it may have died and if we should do anything. We had a small box with us, so I scooped it up and we decided to take it home and bury it in the backyard. The poor thing looked so sad and we knew that if we left it on the street, it would just be run over by cars. 
Here's Duncan digging the sparrow's grave. I let him find a spot and he turned up some earth near his sandbox.
I think it's important to not shy away from talking about life cycles with children. Duncan is four and he's interested in talking about animals and what happens when they die. Three of our classroom Beta fish have died within two weeks and he saw me get rid of them.
Here's the sparrow in the ground. I think it's best to respect the intelligence of children and not shy away from discussing death. At the beginning of the school year, our classroom gerbil died suddenly in front of the class. We all left crying that day (including myself). I wouldn't want any class of mine to go through a traumatic experience like that again, yet the death of Rosie the gerbil really brought our class together and I learned early on in the school year that my students were caring, sensitive kids.
