PLANTATION, Fla. – It was a colorful morning at Tropical Elementary School in Plantation where the fifth grade class honored one of history’s darkest times on Wednesday.
Each fifth grader painted a butterfly to represent one of the 1.5 million children murdered during the Holocaust.
“I picked a medium-sized one with little nubs as antennas. I think it’s fragile but really pretty,” fifth grader Alexa Newell said.
The butterflies are affixed to a permanent memorial in the fifth-grade hallway at Tropical Elementary and now each year new fifth graders will add to the memorial.
“We are teaching our students about the lessons of the Holocaust the acceptance of differences and creating empathy and compassion among them.” Holocaust lead teacher, Adina Baseman said.
It’s part of an effort at schools nationwide as students are taught about the atrocities of the Holocaust.
“We really need to teach empathy and compassion and kindness and I think this is a perfect way the symbol of a butterfly a delicate is a delicate insect and a short lifespan and the fact that these butterflies represent the children of the Holocaust whose lives were cut short,” art teacher, Elizabeth Hodges said.
The students even got to meet a Holocaust survivor.
“It felt very exciting to meet one. But then her story was very sad,” fifth grader Pharrell Johnson said.
The students were excited to be the first class to kick off this project.