Nature Kindergarten

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)

We were pleased to give out just over 50 application forms at two well-attended public parent information sessions in January.  Nature Kindergarten registration takes place this Tuesday, February 5th at the School Board Office.  Please note that you need to be registered at an SD62 elementary school and have the Nature Kindergarten application form completed in order to register.  Additional application forms will not be handed out until after 8 am.  Those individuals without an application form, at this time, must line up separately.

Thanks to Candice Hall, Nature Kindergarten parent, for assisting with our parent information sessions!

“It is long like three [of] my feet, wide as two pinecones and is a cylinder” A child tells the group on the walk down to our site. “A stick of course” another child answers. “No” the child says, “It is bigger than a stick, it is a branch!” the first child answers. We have been exploring what shapes are in nature and have noticed when we play shape eye spy that the easiest to find are cylinders. We also have been exploring how to measure objects. Some examples of how we are doing this include: comparing stick lengths, measuring who is the tallest child, discovering how many children long a branch is, deciding how many children it takes to measure around a tree, and how many pinecones it takes to measure a stick. All of this is done mostly on our walk down, woven in to conversations, dramatic play and demonstrations by both educators and learners. They are estimating and guessing how long an object is, and then testing out their measuring tools to see how close they are. We have also been taking down a thermometer and been checking the temperature, comparing which days have colder, guessing what the temperature is, as well as comparing how the temperature differs from the classroom and the forest, and the forest and the playground.

This play is very much continued in the classroom in the afternoon. At quiet time, or centers you can see the children experimenting with many types of shapes, from building cubes with stick connecting toys, to creating with tree blocks. They are noticing both inside and out, different shapes that make up the environments around them.

(Written by ECE Erin Van Stone)

Have you ever wondered where we get our energy from? We wondered about this at the start of the week so we checked out some books that taught us that you can trace our energy source back to the sun! This week we learned all about food chains, focused more the concept of predator and prey as well as which animals are herbivores, omnivores and carnivores. We learned that although some animals are bigger than others, it doesn’t mean they are higher in the food chain! Our book told us that plants are at the bottom of the food chain, and we that many of us are omnivores because we eat both animals and plants.

At snack one day we traced all of our food back to the sun. “I have an apple” a child announced. “Where did you get that apple?”Ms. Lockerbie asked. “The store” the child replied. “And where did the store get it?” Ms. Lockerbie asked. “An apple tree” the child responded. “Where did they get their energy from?” asked Ms. Lockerbie. “The sun!” the child thought. We played this game for many of the children’s snacks from rice cakes, nuts, eggs, grapes and blueberries, each time tracing the food back to the sun. We then thought of tracing other animal’s food. A cougar gets his energy from eating a rabbit, the rabbit gets his energy from eating plants and the plants get energy from the sun.

The predator/ prey play was taken to a new level at the site! Children were setting traps in case any predators tried to get into their shelters. They made covered traps that their predator would fall in. They made a stick/branch trap that would hit and scare off a predator, as well as an alarm system and slide to escape. Many children experimented with being the predator or the prey by either being the one chasing or being chased. One child would creep behind a tree then four children would scream and run across the site, being different animals from a bunny, a puppy, a squirrel to a puppy.

This play is full of chance taking and exploring the experiences of something other than themselves. I see children who have less confidence being able to take on the role of a powerful predator. I see children thinking ahead, planning and being protective and helpful to each other. I see their fears, curiosities and questions about predators being explored in their play. I see girls taking on roles of the predator and boys the prey. There is an explosion of confidence and power when they take on the predator role, and experimentation with risk when being the prey.

(Written by ECE Erin Van Stone)

Anyone interested in learning more about the goal of the Growing Innovation Projects supported by the Ministry of Education and the University of BC is invited to join a webinar about Nature Kindergarten on Thursday, January 17th at 3:30 pm.  Please contact anita_prest@yahoo.com to register.

A reminder that there are two parent information sessions taking place tomorrow (January 15th) …

Journeys of the Heart Preschool Program, Wishart Elementary, afternoon

Sangster Elementary School, 7:00 to 8:30 pm

Last week, I attended Sooke’s Awareness Film Night at EMCS secondary school.  They were showing the movies “Play Again” and “Consumer Kids”.  Both are documentaries that speak to the negative societal impacts on childhood and children.  “Play Again” looks at how little time children and youth are spending in nature and how much of their time is spent with electronic media.  “Consumer Kids” explores the powerful marketing strategies that are used to turn children into lifelong consumers of “stuff” at a very young age.  I recommend viewing both movies!

I also wanted to bring awareness to the community farm initiative in Sooke – a group that hopes to offer outdoor after school care in the future.  Visit villagefarmblog.wordpress.com.

I appreciated the opportunity to share the successes of the Nature Kindergarten pilot during a post movie discussion at Awareness Film Night.

For the most part, recently we have been learning about what animals do to survive in the colder temperatures, where they live and what they eat. Through discussions we discovered that some animals hibernate to stay alive during the winter months. We read some books (both fiction and non-fiction) about hibernation and then together we brainstormed about types of animals that hibernate. The children came up with: Bears, worms, frogs, and bats. We learnt that some are deep sleepers and others wake up to eat sometimes!

One day after reading a book about hibernation, we sent the children off with the suggestion that they could choose an animal to be and build a home to hibernate in. The children put themselves in groups and went off to find a spot for their shelter or den. Most children chose an animal, collected materials, found a location, and made a plan. Many were worms, beavers, bears, bats and then there were some wood bugs! Over the next few days structures started to emerge, plans were made, discussions had, ideas changed, groups changed, animals changed and most of all the children changed. Working together in teams there were children drawing plans on clip boards, collecting branches larger then themselves, gathering pinecones and leaves, building and of course there were the children supervising! First the structures looked like branches placed around them or a whole dug in the ground.

 As the days passed Lisa and I offered some questions:

Will you fit in it?

Will you be safe from predators?

Will it be comfortable and warm?

Will you have enough food?

Will it last the whole winter?

 Is it water proof? Does it need to be?

 This is when the dens really took off. The children started to build their shelters higher, but soon realized with a roof they didn’t fit in. Working together one group moved all of their bark and branches over to the tree and leaned them up on against it.  Five teams and about five dens emerged. There were elaborate bear dens with toilets, air fresheners, decorations and doors. There were dens that 3-4 children could fit in at a time, with roofs that were actually pretty water proof. There were wood bug houses with long tunnels with bedrooms and of course a castle. The branches that the children were moving were very big, heavy, and awkward. They dragged them across the site to their shelter. When they had finished building it, they made bathrooms and bedrooms in their shelter. For some reason, it was imperative that every shelter needed a bathroom!

Over the winter break the dens held up in the weather. When we come back after two weeks the children went right back into their same groups and shelters, and engaged right back into the same dialogue as though no time had passed. Many children collected branches, mud, and small sticks to “fill the cracks” so that they were more water proof (It was really rainy the first few days back).

Lisa and I were both amazed how fast the children got into groups and started this project. How much teamwork there was as well as how the play progressed and developed. The children were constantly engaged in negotiating and dialogue about what they were doing. Some children were the planners, others the collectors and some the builders. We noticed new friendships bloom and children who normally don’t play together successfully, work together to create something magical.

 Children discovered that some branches work better than others, and that making it between and under fallen trees is a perfect dry place to build a den. They measured the branches and sorted the longer and shorter ones, and felt their weight differences. When they were building, we noticed the children figuring out which branches would fit where, and that the smaller ones were better for the door area. The climbed their dens to see if they were strong enough to last the winter. They hung cedar because it smelled good and helped them keep dry. They also discovered that bark made a good roof, and kept them the driest.

 From this we will start to go deeper into shapes and measurement concepts as the dens have made some interesting shapes and the children were able to engage with many weight and measurement concepts. The environment has allowed us to start to explore 3D shapes by finding materials around us and then using them to create new shapes. Another very fun time at Nature Kindergarten!