Golda Meir School

Golda Meir School is a grade 3-8 magnet school for gifted students in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The school is named after the former Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir, who attended the school from 1906-1909 when she lived with her family in Milwaukee.

Each year Jan Weiler's third grade class studies cranes. The students do many hands-on activities, including designing crane habitat dioramas and life-sized models of Whooping and Red-crowned Cranes made of paper-mache (these cranes are five feet tall!). Mrs. Weiler's students also visit the International Crane Foundation each year for a class tour. This past spring, the students brought their sketchbooks with them and drew the cranes after their tour. After they returned to their classroom, the students painted watercolor pictures to exchange with students in China and Russia who are also learning about cranes.

In March 2007, Tracking Cranes educators Kang Yun and Mash Vladimirtseva visited Mrs. Weiler's class. The students learned about the cranes and people in China and Russia, and even learned how to play the Chinese game, Jianzi (similar to hacky sack). Click here to read about their visit!

This summer Mrs. Weiler participated in a teacher exchange through our project, traveling with a group of four Milwaukee teachers to several nature reserves in northeast China and Russia. During their visit, the teachers help lead environmental camps for students along the east Asia flyway. Using cranes as their focal point, they taught environmental and conservation lessons, along with activities that stressed team work and problem solving. Click here to read more about the summer camp program and a summary of the Crane Egg Game, a student activity that Mrs. Weiler uses in her classes and led during the summer camps.