Nature Kindergarten

For our professional development day in April, Lisa, Enid, Jeanne and I (Erin) had the opportunity to spend time with Claire Warden
both in our forest here, and at a workshop in Vancouver. Claire is a forest educator from Scotland who speaks internationally about the forest school
movement and creating natural play spaces. She has developed the “floor book” concept as a tool to both deepen the children’s learning and assist in
assessment. This being our second time working with Claire, we were able to share with other educators our experiences using the forest floor books as well
as learn from other educators who are trying it out. The children at Nature K have already created a bird book, and are currently working on a plant/spring book. These books come out into the forest most days, and are a way for the children to document the progression of their learning. Thank you to the Port Coquitlam school district for having us again!

(Written by Nature Kindergarten ECE Erin Van Stone)

I had the great pleasure of joining the Nature Kindergarten class a couple of weeks ago as they ventured out to the forest with buddy students from their school.  This was the first time the older buddy students got to experience the outdoors, and what a grand time they had!  Everyone listened carefully as the Kindergarten students shared the three rules of being in the forest, and then out they went.  For the next hour, the Nature Kindergarten students shared their expertise with ease and confidence.

“You have to put nature back into nature,” remarked one Kindergarten student as they paused at the Royal Roads’ gate to dig holes in the sand before making their way into the forest.

“Invasive means [the plants] grow everywhere and take away other plants’ nutrients,” offered another Nature Kindergarten student after his teacher cautioned the buddy students about the dangers of the daphne plant.

The sharing of information continued as the students worked in pairs to complete a nature scavenger hunt.  The Nature Kindergarten students were able to identify Oregon grape, cedar trees, and sword ferns without difficulty.  Later, students used the items collected on the scavenger hunt to build structures together.  The structures varied from bat homes to fairy houses to play shelters.

Before buddy students returned to the school, they acknowledged the following highlights about their shared experience:

“We had a limbo game.”

“I loved building a sculpture.”

“I learned that daphne can paralyze you.”

The Nature Kindergarten morning continued with snack, check-in, and time to play.  I was touched by the warm-hearted comments children made toward one another, their educators, and me during the check-in.  This is a daily ritual where a student asks each of his classmates to respond to ‘how they are feeling’ and ‘what they are thankful for’.   As the check-in takes place, some students keep a tally of responses to ‘how students are feeling’ while others draw pictures in their Nature Detective booklets.

My morning in the Nature Kindergarten inspired me to think about how to provide students at my home school of Colwood Elementary with more opportunities to be in nature.  The Nature Kindergarten students displayed seemingly endless energy to be and play in nature …to create…to climb…to build…to swing…  What a treat for me to be there as an observer to witness their enthusiasm.

Finally, I was awed by the way in which Lisa, Erin and Muriel guided and supported the students to learn, to be safe, and to resolve their own conflicts.  In their own unique way, each of them encourages independence and critical thinking.  Imagine how empowering it is for a student to be asked …”Why do you think that?  Tell me about your thinking”.  Kudos to Lisa, Erin, and Muriel for all they do!

(written by Frances Krusekopf, Nature Kindergarten Project Manager)

Recently our walks have been full of observing the changes that the forest is making as it transitions into spring. This has provided very relevant opportunities to wonder and learn about plant life cycles, stages of tree growth, and types of plant species.  We have been making predictions about what different buds will turn into, what the leafless plants will be, and what will happen next. We usually start our walks asking the children to be nature detectives and find clues or signs of spring.

“Look, look something is different, it is new” a child commented as we walk around our special tree.

“What is that?” another child asked.

“It must be what a Douglas Fir branch looks like small” another added.

“No that looks like a snail” a child noticed.

“Gross, it reminds me of a brain” commented a child.

“I notice it has a long stalk and then a curl” I commented.

“We saw lots of those on the walk down, not on trees” commented a child.

“I wonder what it will turn into, I bet if we wait we will find out in a few days” I commented.

“It is going to be a maple tree, there is a maple tree up there, and the seed fell, the Douglas Fir is the nurse log” a child commented.

“A nurse log is dead” a child argued.

“No! Not all the time” A child demanded.  

“I know the real answer. The real answer is it is going to be a sword fern that is the real answer” a child said with authority.

 The children’s attention turn to a baby banana slug that is at the base of the tree. Two children find banana slugs, one small and one large. They hold them close to each other and they talk about how they have to stay close because one is the mom and one is the baby.

“Don’t put her near a Trillium, she will eat it” a child predicted.

The forest is very quickly turning changing, and the children are noticing plants, slugs, ants, and many new birds. The children’s conversations have been focused around growth stages, types of plants, what plants need to grow, pollination as well as what animals are doing at this time. Currently, they are working together to creating a book about what they are learning. To explore plant growth further we are also growing vegetables in our school garden, and the children also have their own garden to explore inside.

Beginning September 2013, a nature preschool will be offered at the Swan Lake Nature sanctuary in Saanich, BC (outside of Victoria).  Congratulations to Chris Filler, recreation programmer, for leading this new initiative.

Please follow this link for more information.  Saanich News – Saanich branches into nature education

consider registering for the next “Nature Kindergarten Experience” course at Royal Roads University in Victoria.  The course will be co-facilitated by Dr. Enid Elliot and one of the Nature Kindergarten educators.  Please follow this link to register.  NK link

“Ms. Van Stone, Ms. Van Stone listen, listen…” A child runs towards me with two small sticks; the group stops and waits. She hits the sticks together to make a sounds and everyone stands and listens intensely. The sound is so quiet children have to bend over to hear it more clearly. She then stops and then changes the sounds to make a different pattern. “Rub, rub, tap, tap, rub, rub, tap, tap!” a child says as he mimics the pattern with his hands.

Further down the trail another child finds a hollow branch. “Listen!” he hits a stick on either side of the branch. “If I bang it here, it sounds different then there. I could make a song” he says. This thought made me wonder if the child thought that two different sounds are needed for a song. I wondered what connections were made when he made this assumption. “I wonder why that made different sounds?” a child asks. “Because one is hollow and the other is full of water” a child suggests. “I think that it is because it is skinny on one side” another suggests.

Since September the children have been exploring the sounds of the forest, but more recently they have been intrigued about the sounds that they themselves can create in the forest. They use sticks, rocks, pinecones, branches, the ground, roots and trees to make many different sounds. It has been wonderful to listen to them create questions about different sounds, such as what makes sounds and what sounds is.  We have been aware of them really listening to sounds, and watching their ability to recognize tone differences and predicts surrounding sound. They are also connecting the sounds they are making to musical instruments. “This sound reminds me of a drum, and this one is a flute”.   

This growing confidence in creating sounds has transferred to the children being outstanding musical performers!  Many mornings you can find children practicing songs during play time, and performing them later in the morning for the whole class. Everyone has a role, there are performers, lights people, people handing out popcorn or drinks, introducers, drummers, singers, audience members and dancers. Everyday these roles change, and the children have a great ability to regulate who is doing what. Amazingly it is all different children who prepare and perform for the group. Even the quietest children are willing to belt out their favorite songs, while the other children cheer them on. I feel as though the forest allows these children to notice many different types of sounds and the being in nature provides the opportunity to freely explore, wonder and question what sound is all about.

(Written by Erin Van Stone, Nature K ECE)

An aspect of the Nature Kindergarten project is on-going professional development for the Nature Kindergarten team – including, most importantly, our teacher and early childhood educator.  For that reason, we recently invited US early childhood educator and author Ann Pelo to Victoria.  Thanks so much to the support of Success by Six funding for making this possible.

Last Thursday night, Ann presented to a crowd of about 65 individuals at the University of Victoria.  She spoke to us about developing an ”ecological identity” in young children.  Consider the following practices for cultivating an ecological identity that Ann shared with us:

Walk the land

Practice silence

Learn the names

Embrace sensuality

Explore new perspectives

Create stories

Make rituals

Interested in learning more, look for Ann’s new book titled The Goodness of Rain. 

Please follow this link to read more http://blog.childrenandnature.org/2013/02/12/udeskole-in-scandinavia-teaching-learning-in-natural-places/

Parents lined up mid-morning on February 4th and spent the night in front of the school board office in preparation for the 8 am registration day on February 5th.  We have tentatively accepted 12 boys and 10 girls into the second cohort of Nature Kindergarten beginning September 2013.  Perspective students and their parents need to participate in a day of Nature Kindergarten this month in order to confirm their interest in the program.

The birds have been much more active in the last few weeks and the children have definitely become aware of this. Down one of our new trails the children spotted two ravens in a tree talking to each other and “fighting”. The children all lied down along the trail for 10 minutes to watch, listen and try to copy their sounds. This encounter accompanied with a woodpecker joining us up in his tree at a snack time sparked many questions from the children. After a great workshop with Claire Warden, this week Lisa and I took a new approach to helping the children answer their questions about the birds they are seeing.

On Monday we offered 3D and 2D objects about birds at a morning group time and the children began thinking, engaging, questioning and presenting information about birds. “I wonder what is inside that egg” asked a child. “It is a bird” offered one child. “I think it is a dragon” answered another. “How do birds fly” asked another child. “I wonder how they swim so well” a child asked. The children took these questions to the forest and began making nests, observing birds, playing bird games, drawing and spelling related bird words such as, fly, fast, bird, eagle, big, blue, egg and wood. They took our bird book and began to learn the names of many of the birds. They went on a bird hunt and counted birds on our walk down.

On Tuesday they took a field trip to the Goldstream nature house to learn all about eagles and the children were able to see one through a telescope. The children engaged back and forth for days about how birds fly, what their bones look like, how they swim, where they live, what and how they eat and then finally they wondered… is a bee a bird? It flies…

On Wednesday morning armed with that question the children as a group mapped out what types of animals are birds. “A bird has wings” a child described. “A bird flies” another thought. “But penguins don’t fly” another commented. “Birds have beaks, a moth doesn’t have a beak” One child noticed. “Birds have feathers, a bee doesn’t have feathers” another added. “Herons have colorful beaks” a child thought. Another child disagreed. “The sting ray looks like it has wings, but birds aren’t under water” a child thought. As a group the children grouped the pictures into groups of birds, nocturnal birds and non birds, insects and water animals connecting the pictures with their reasoning.

On Thursday their grade 7 buddies came and met us at the site and the children shared with them what they were learning. Together they made nests out of sticks, mud, grass and feathers that the children had collected.

On Friday we took at trip down to the lagoon and spent time with ducks, geese, swans and seagulls to answer our questions about how they swim and eat. The children spent their quiet time observing the birds in the water and air. That afternoon some children brought things about birds to share such as rocks that look like eggs, pictures of birds, a book, and a real Owl that was stuffed.

Overall this week the children learned how to present information they already knew and apply reasoning, critical thinking and observational skills to create new meaning. They learned to bounce ideas of each other, ask questions and find ways to answer those questions. They learned that sometimes the assumptions you first made may not always be correct. They learned what a bird actually is, by engaging in back and forth conversation. By observing birds in their natural habitat they learned about different ways birds eat, swim, make nests, and fly. They sounded out words related to birds, and represented what they know through drawings. I wonder what next week will bring!

(Written by Nature K ECE Erin Van Stone)