Willow Glen Resident

Education

River Glen teacher spins tale about cycle of life with classroom silkworms

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

Students, parents and teachers at River Glen School have been spun together by the silk of a silkworm.

Second-grade teacher Jackie Fruttero began raising the insects and giving them to willing parents and students about three years ago, after buying the eggs at a local teachers store.

"They embody the circle of life," Fruttero says.

The worms hatch from their eggs, eat all day, start spinning their cocoons, then hatch as moths. Once they evolve into moths, their life span is just three to six days.

The project fits with her lessons on the lifecycle of plants, she says.

"It ties in well," Fruttero says. "It's nice for them to physically see what they are learning in their books."

This year, Fruttero had more than 500 silkworms and decided to open the experience up to the whole school.

"I feel very lucky, because I had so many kids at all grade levels," she says. "Kids I had never met were coming in and interacting with me and my students."

Willow Glen resident Elizabeth Vander Esch and her son Caleb were among the many families who took in some of Fruttero's silkworms.

"We were lucky enough to get some," Vander Esch says, "but we didn't know much about them so Caleb and I started googling them."

After some research on the Internet, Vander Esch and Caleb realized the only thing silkworms ate are mulberry leaves.

"We had no idea where to find mulberry leaves or what they even looked like," Vander Esch says.

So they reached out to the Willow Glen community through an elist and were pleasantly surprised by the response.

"It really makes you feel connected," Vander Esch says.

One woman on the elist even invited Vander Esch and Caleb to come and harvest her leaves anytime.

"I haven't met her, but I've met her dogs," Vander Esch says.

The family has had the silkworms for more than two weeks and has enjoyed the process.

Their favorite activity is watching the silkworms munch down on mulberry leaves. After more than a week, the family got a colorful surprise.

"We went to bed last night and we had silkworms," Vander Esch says "then in the morning, we had cocoons."

The silkworms spun fibrous and delicate cocoons in their makeshift homes made of cut toilet paper rolls. The worms can spin their cocoons in green, pink or yellow. The most common color is yellow.

"This morning, one was in its cocoon and you could still see the worm moving around and spinning," Vander Esch says. She and Caleb sat and watched as the silkworm completely vanished from sight inside its cocoon.

"It's actually kind of meditative watching the worms," Vander Esch says. "It's better than television."