Rice Babies Project Turns 35

Thirty-five years ago, FWCD first-graders began a tradition that has become one of the School’s most beloved rites of passage: creating their very own Rice Babies. The project began in 1992 when First-Grade Teacher Sheri Fuller and colleagues Ann Buis, Diana Isbell and Donna Rubin brought the idea to FWCD after learning about a similar project presented by teachers from New Orleans at an Independent Schools Association of the Southwest conference. What began as a creative classroom activity has grown into a treasured FWCD tradition.

Each school year, first graders bring rice equal to their birth weight to school, then use it to fill tea-dyed socks to create their newborns. With the addition of wiggly eyes, a pacifier and a belly button, each baby takes on its own personality before being swaddled in a baby blanket – often a special “blankie” the student used as a baby.

The experience is about much more than making a cute keepsake. Through their Rice Babies, students explore caring for others while incorporating lessons in weight, measurement, time, dates and family birth order. Activities have included reading, singing lullabies and art projects, turning the nursery into an immersive learning experience.

The tradition has also become a way to connect across generations. Many seniors still have their Rice Babies more than a decade after creating them in first grade. In 2021, Courtney Corbeille Krauss ’06 (who was the First Grade Associate) made a Rice Baby alongside her students and shared her own first-grade Rice Baby photo with her father – a reminder of how the tradition links Falcons across generations. This year, alumni families  experienced the beloved tradition through their children’s eyes. 

For Fuller, who helped launch the project, that enduring connection has been one of its greatest joys. “I love the joy that Rice Babies bring to our FWCD families,” she said. Thirty-five years later, that joy continues – one rice-filled baby at a time.