Spring has sprung in the forest! The birds have been singing with us every morning and the children have been eager to learn about them. To start our explorations about birds we just started to help the children pay attention and wonder about them. We created an exploration box with objects representing birds and explored these objects for many mornings at our forest circle meeting while also recording the children’s questions and ponderings.

Every morning birds emerged in some area of our morning, and the children started to become very interested in the colours of birds. They started to engage with Robert Batemans book “Backyard Birds”. Every day at the painting station Robert Batemans book was set up beside the paint and children created beautiful paintings of birds. Next week we will visit the Robert Bateman art gallery to explore his bird paintings.

We took the children’s questions and created a wall of their questions/wonderings. We called this our “Wonder Wall”, an idea we got when visiting some very engaging classrooms in Vancouver recently.

To answer our questions about birds we started to make a bird wall in the classroom. In the forest the children started their research by putting sticky notes on the pages of bird books where they found something they wanted to learn about. Lisa would then read that page to them, than they drew what they learned from their research. These were then placed our bird wall in the classroom. In another group in the forest the children started to create a big book about what they were learning about birds. They made many pages including a title page, types of birds, bird food, predator/prey and nests.

The children have been working to answer their questions from the wonder wall and move it to our bird wall. They have used each other, books, observations, people at home, TV shows and theory making to start to answer their bird questions.

Here are some examples of their questions:

Why is the raven all black? So its predators cannot find it

Why do birds have webbed feet? To help them swim.

Why does the eagle have a sharp beak? So it can rip its food apart. It has a curve on it.

How are birds able to fly? They have hollow bones.

(Written by Erin Van Stone, Nature K ECE)

“I found a T, I found a T!” a child called as he ran through the bush towards us. He held up a stick shaped like a T.

“What starts with T?” We asked him.

“T-t-t-t-tree!” he called then he drew many T’s in the dirt joined by a few friends.

“Train and today” another child called as we continued down the path.

“Trap, turtle!” a child called from the back of the group.

A short distance down the path we gathered together and made a circle. It was an impromptu story time, but this time the children were the authors of the story. “Let’s make it a T story” a child suggested.

The special helper started us off holding the talking stick so everyone knew it was her turn. “Once upon a time there was a tree”.

 The next child picked up the stick paused, then said “It was tall and talking” they then passed on the stick.

“It was as tall as (pause) like a (pause) train” the next child said.

Each child contributed to the story and the story grew…

The tree, it was a trap!

It was a trap for bears.

The raven was tricking the bears and theywere going to have a party.

They decorated the table to trick the bear.

The bear came home to the table but it was too small. He said who has been sitting on my table!

Surprise! Yelled the tree!

They all played together.

The end.

“That was a really silly story” one child said as we got up to continue walking. “Really silly” another added. Later a child found an N shaped stick. “What letter is this” he asked. “It is the one that makes the nnnnnnn sound” he said with his arms held out like an airplane. “It is an N” another child said. How do you draw the N again?” He asked. Together he  then drew many N’s on both his nature detective book and in the dirt. 

Written by Erin Van Stone (Nature Kindergarten ECE)

The school year has ended, and sadly this means that our first cohort of Nature Kindergarten students will move onto Grade One in the fall.  Thank you to all Nature Kindergarten parents who completed our two-page year end questionnaire.  We were pleased to receive 18 (of 21) completed questionnaires.  According to the parent questionnaires, the program exceeded parents’ expectations and their children had a positive Kindergarten experience.

So, what did parents feel their children learned as a result of their Nature Kindergarten experience?  Some themes emerged …

* Increased knowledge about animals, flora and fauna

* Improved physical stamina and endurance

* A greater desire to be outdoors in all types of weather and for longer periods of time

* An interest in First Nations stories and culture

* Empathy toward classmates and living beings found in the forest

* A stronger sense of self-confidence

* An increase in the time families spent outdoors, especially in poor weather

Some parent comments below:

“She is much more aware of the environment and how we all need to do our share to keep our environment/nature in good order for the future.”

“My child is the most physically fit he has ever been, he sleeps better, he eats even better, our family is even more active outdoors together.”

“I am now being out run by my 5 year old.”

“We are less likely to ‘wimp out’ about being active outside inclement weather!  We are also not shying away from active days with our kids.”

“He has drastically improved his self-regulation.”

“My son adores Miss Muriel, he loves Thursdays and loves learning all about the First Nations people.  He is constantly teaching our family facts about traditions, culture, music, language, and stories too.”

Every day we are astonished by the sense of community within our class. This really shouldn’t come as a surprise as our Nature Kindergarten’s beginnings stem from broad collaborative relationships with a broad range of community members. Also, the children are out exploring, connecting and experiencing various parts of their community every day.

Within the program, Lisa and I are focused on fostering a strong connection to our community and have community members out with the class almost on a weekly basis. These connections range from older “buddy” classes to local elders. It also includes plant, tree, fish and nature specialists, local college classes, first aid specialists, artists, retired teachers, early childhood educators, parents, and of course our class friend Werner who has an endless offering of knowledge and resources. The children have also visited the Goldstream Nature House and the library and have gone swimming at the community center. Often on windy days we won’t go into the forest and instead go on community walks or walk to the beach.

The past two weeks are a great example of how the program and community are intertwined. We recently participated in a wonderful presentation by “Growing Solutions” about the importance of growing food locally, which reinforced the importance of taking care of our class garden. This past week we had our Principal Maureen Lauren and parents out with us exploring. Also joining us one day was a grade four class from our school; together we built shelters and did a nature scavenger hunt. The kindergartens were so excited to share all they know with the older buddies! Later in the week we participated in a school wide beach clean-up, and learned how to curl from the Rocks and Rinks program! Ms. Muriel our Aboriginal Support worker brought her drum and taught us the Coast Salish national anthem. Then on Friday, as usual, we had Ms. Enid join us in our quest to be nature
detectives! Wow what a week we had!

This past Monday we had two parents out with us again in the morning, they went with us to explore at the beach. They helped us find seven red spiders, and also helped keep the swans from enjoying our snacks! Parent participation is very important to Lisa and I, and we feel so fortunate to be able to have to have so much parent involvement within the class. On Tuesday, we had Shirley a First Nations Elder come into the forest and teach us Sencoten. It was wonderful to have her with us in the forest; we learned the Sencoten word for bear, squirrel, eagle and how to count to ten. Thursday we visited our grade seven buddy class at the nearby middle school, Dunsmuir. They have visited us in the forest many times, and have built art, shelters, and done scavenger hunts. This time we had the opportunity to go to their school to make cedar book marks with them led by Linda and Terry Ermineskin. On Friday, we usually have the wonderful Ms. Enid join us, but this time we had Jeannie a professor at Camosun College join us for the morning.

We feel very fortunate to be able to have these connections with our community, and are so thankful for all the knowledge and support the community has given us.

(Written by Erin Van Stone, Nature Kindergarten ECE)

Licensed Nature Preschool for 4 year olds at West Shore Parks and Recreation

Tuesdays & Thursdays from 9:00 -11:30am,  January 8 – June 20, 2013

Registration begins on December 6^th at 6am at Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre.

Each day your child will create, explore and learn about nature through play and hands-on learning. Children will deepen their understanding of the world around them; build a lasting relationship with their community and the environment.

Program led by ECE Educators. For more information please call Lori Argyle 250-474-5825

Wow! Almost the middle of October and we just experienced our first day of rain! We enjoyed putting all this wonderful rain gear to the test! We also discovered that when it rains our worm friends come out to greet us. 

This week the children were interested in how much the environment around them was changing. In groups we searched for signs of fall. The children have learned to notice and observe their environment. For example a child stated “I’m observing that the bottom of the horse tail is black”. When asked why he thought it was black he responded “Because it is dying”. The children noticed that not only was it getting colder, but the trees and plants were changing. We searched for the many different types of leaves that had fallen on the ground. The children spent time counting, sorting and playing in these leaves. This week the children learned how to count to five and say bear and squirrel in SENĆOŦEN.

As the week went on, the children noticed squirrels on the field. The squirrels were chasing each other and the children concluded that they must be getting ready for winter! We decided to be squirrels for the day and spent the day doing as squirrels do! The next day, we read about and researched squirrels to discover that they don’t hibernate as bear do. We learned that they collect nuts and pinecones to eat during the winter months. They create a home called a “drey” out of leaves and twigs, and they bury their food. The children worked together to fill their pockets with what they (as squirrels) would need for the winter. We then built dreys and buried the nuts and pinecones we found. We found a squirrel Skelton and learned about what prey on squirrels.

 (Prepared by Erin Van Stone, Nature K ECE)

“There is no bad weather, only bad clothes!” Being outside all morning in all kinds of weather means the children need good clothing that will stop the rain, keep them warm and comfortable. We gave parents a list of clothing supplies that will insure their children are warm and dry, even during cold January mornings. Parents have been busy buying long underwear, warm sweaters and pants. To be sure that all the children have good quality clothing that would stand up to daily use for a year and still be useable for next year we decided to buy the boots, raincoats and pants and backpacks. We did not want the cost of clothing and boots to be an obstacle to any child being able to participate in the program, we approached several sources with little luck and then this summer our local community came through.

Scallywag’s, a children’s clothing store, offered to donate three units of rain gear and to order the rest of the rain pants and coats at a discount. With word of Scallywag’s support we had other community donors willing to contribute for more rain suits. Traci McGee Family Counseling practice will sponsor one suit, Kristen Watson will sponsor one suit and another community donor will sponsor two suits.  A parent, Scot Taylor, had donated money towards the clothing earlier in the summer and we are able to put that money towards the coats and pants. These raincoats will certainly get a test of endurance and hopefully prove to be durable enough to be used next year.

Valhalla Pure Outfitters is helping us find hiking boots for the children at a reasonable cost. It will make a difference in the rainy days we have coming that the children have coats and boots that keep them warm. We are grateful to our community that has come forward to help support this project!

Those of you who participated in our Nature Kindergarten Orientation in June will recall that we were keen to receive your feedback to guide us as we develop future learning opportunities.  enid wrote the post that follows, and together we determined that this blog was a better forum, than email, to invite you to participate in a discussion question.

Dear Building Our Compass folks–

We had a great orientation and it was wonderful to meet you all and hear what you are doing…very inspiring! We are a community of learners and thinkers. Thank you for all your attention, thought and willingness to engage. There are lots of interesting projects going on.

I am going to bring up a discussion question…if you have time it might be nice to hear from you to carry the discussion further.

One person noted and others may have thought that our Friday with the naturalists and their pre-planned activities presented a challenge to the previous two days that focused on a play-based, emergent curriculum. How do pre-planned curriculum ideas/activities connect to an emergent curriculum?

There were lovely ideas from “growing up wild” and the activities may well connect with ideas that children find of interest. It seems to me that it is still a model that presumes to know what children want to know/should know….activities can certainly stimulate children’s thinking and questions. Children’s responses to the activities can be a guide to future ideas. Some children like to name and classify but others may want to experience the joy and wonder of being outside…and these are not
mutually exclusive…and one is not better than the other. We need artists, scientists, lover of the outdoors and community members who enjoy their place in the world….there are many skills needed outdoors and we bring many gifts to our relationships outside.
I am interested in your feedback to this idea. I hope to share with the Project Wild folks some different ideas that move away from child development and linear learning and suggest another model that embraces a more holistic way. They might be interested in ideas of listening to children and promoting ways to think together with children and how they might encourage teachers to do this. Who we think the child is influences how we perceive them and how we feel they should learn.

Would love to hear your thoughts….  enid