Our new group includes 9 explorers from last year’s Woods and Wetlands summer adventures. Add to that a wide developmental range and we have a hodge-podge of personalities, abilities, and experience! Compared to our last two groups this one got off to what felt like an awkward start, at least for the teachers. But after four mornings together, we have settled in nicely. It’s fun to watch the kids with prior experience because they are more independent, confident, and they are able to deepen and broaden their explorations. Nature-play and Play-Based Learning naturally lend themselves to scaffolding as children instinctively challenge themselves at that “just right” level at which they take appropriate risks and set themselves to learning and growing by pursuing their own interests. We offer support in the form of thinking questions and encouragement, stepping back when possible and stepping in when needed.
Social Skills
Taking turnsGreeting with names, eye contact, and physically passing a relevant nature object.Learning by watching others.Waiting for a turn.Using Michigan wildlife finger puppets for our greeting..Laughter builds social bonds.Kids need to have opportunities to be silly while learning.Mr. Porcupine took charge for our greeting.Pretending to be someone or something different builds empathy.Giggling + eye contact.Building a fort takes teamwork.Arms up while we pass by some nettles. Kids are also holding branches for each other and watching out for one another.Connecting with oneself can help us be better, more mindful friends to ourselves and each other.“Hiding” behind a different persona than their own gives young children a chance to “try on” and identify with those who are different from us.Learning we can also just be silent with a friend sometimes.
Do-Overs
Childhood is the best time to learn from mistakes. One of our new explorers had a rough start, socially speaking. Some poor choices were made. But we don’t use loss of participating as a consequence. Instead we try to always offer chances for “do-overs,” in conjunction with giving children specific words and strategies they need for round 2. How else can we learn unless we get to try again?
Patterns and Treasures
I usually introduce a theme of sorts during Morning Meeting. Sometimes I plan it but often the kids’ energy and/or interests prompt me to modify it on the spot. Teaching and earning without blocking the natural flow always works better for me and for the kids. During our first week we introduced Nature Treasures and Patterns in Nature. These two “lessons” are intertwined and next week we will blend them in with learning about different trees based on leaf recognition.
Some treasures are only kept long enough to observe before releasing.Our Nature Treasure Museum is growing. Noticing leaf patterns led to trying out leaf rubbings.We asked the kids to try drawing at least one of the 8 nature patterns I introduced.Most of our explorers drew more than one of the patterns.Two great books for introducing fractals (patterns) are Spin Flow Grow and Nothing to Do.Looking at a picture or an actual subject makes drawing it much easier.Tree bark is patterned too. Hugging “Mama Oak.” Thank you to trees for their cool shade and air-making!Mushrooms have interesting patterns.Introducing Nature Treasures.We intentionally teach them how to handle fragile things carefully. This builds trust both ways.Letter Y treasure was added to our museum.Beetles make what looks like a secret language on logs.Animal tracks are patterns too.Ordinary beetle by day, magical fairy lantern by night.This little guy knows a LOT about nature and is an intrepid explorer! (The child, not the toad.)Translation: “Baby deer jaw.” (found in the woods)Two damselflies alighted on his arm.Being gentle with wildlife is a good sign for the adult he will become one day.Some mushrooms have gills, others have pores.They discovered clay rocks which led to painting.Fancy fungi!This lovely girl made a beautiful web to trap our least favorite bugs.Finding treasure on the bottom of the creek.Experimenting with ways to harmlessly affect the world around us.Clay painting.Galls on a leaf.A wildflower called “Indian Pipe,” is unable to make its own food, but is not a fungi. Snail shells have the spiral pattern.We broke open this oak gall to find out what was inside.Great Blue Heron tracks?No one is ever bored when I bring out the treasure box!
Sensory Experiences
Exploring in nature during Woods and Wetlands is a full, sensory experience. Children learn best by using their bodies. “Move to learn and learn to move.”
Mud gloves for safe handling of small creatures.They worked really hard to get this dead tree trunk detached.Purposeful? Maybe not, but much was learned in the process! Looking up into the branching patterns against a blue sky. Noticing our breath. Getting in touch with our own bodies.There’s nothing like a cold river on a hot day.Measuring and estimating water depth. “Ms. T, why is the water not as high up on you?” (Informal math discussion followed.)Noticing places where the water is warmer or cooler. Wondering and hypothesizing. Brain Gym: Criss CrossThough the neighbor cut down most of our Logjam Bridge, we didn’t let that stop us. This group is more careful about getting their boots stuck in the muck.I teach stick usage and safety so I can trust everyone with sticks. Offering trust helps children learn to be trustworthy.I like to draw attention to noticing the scents when we enter the woods. Humans forget to use their sniffers as much as we could.A “dead” log is full of more life than a living tree!The texture of rich, dark, muddy soil is a novelty for most kids. It is easy to rinse right off in the river.High five!Slugs are fascinating. Doctors have worked to replicate slug slime to use in places of internal stitches for surgery.Resisting the current or allowing it to push them helps develop their vestibular systems.Sniffing the skunk cabbage.There is much to see and learn when we get close to the earth.Some of us enjoy nature quietly.We make time for either journaling or investigating at our own Sit Spots.Only do what you feel safe doing. Find your way across in the way that works for you.Feeling the surface of the water without immersing our hands.Coordination and strength building. finding our balance.Brain Gym helps both of our brain hemispheres to work together and can shift us into using our prefrontal cortex which calms us and makes reasoning possible.Half the group went adventuring with me along the river’s edge where we encountered a fallen, but still living and strong, maple tree. Some were experienced climbers while others were a little scared but still ready to try to navigate horizontal tree climbing.She has grown so much since last summer! Brave explorer!
T.
P.S. Mini-rant: I so wish that nature play and play based learning were woven into school curriculums at every level. Teachers need to be trained so that they can feel safe and comfortable taking their kids out into the wild. Time to do so ought to be guaranteed and protected as a necessary part of the school day or week. Funding programs like Woods and Wetlands throughout the school year would make such a positive impact on the mental, physical, social, emotional, and academic health of every student AND their teachers! Yet schools are, instead, adding MORE testing and MORE curriculum, while cutting back on recess and continuing outdated models of schooling that clearly are not working for the majority of children. The scientific evidence demonstrating what works is being largely ignored by those who control the curriculums, testing regimes, and school day structure in this country.
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly an hour in the woods can go by! When today’s session was over, I was so not ready to leave our endeavor to build a little dam across a flowing, trickle of stream using clay found right there in the ravine.
Today’s hour of Woods and Wetlands was spent with one of the first families I explored with when initially introducing my W&W Family Format. My friend and her 3 children, ages 5, 9, and 10, were eager to show me the wonders of nature in their own backyard. Rather than the long walk to the river, we just hopped right into the woods behind their home where water has carved a ravine and flows to the nearby Rogue River. I was absolutely delighted to follow the kids as they led me to some of the special places they already know and love. As we approached, my mind leaped ahead to possibilities of learning about water – its sources, its effects, its necessity! There are endless opportunities for understanding the water cycle and our place in protecting our fresh water.
Our first stop was just a simple, shallow, pool of water with late morning sun striking it just perfectly and the kids declared it to be their frog-catching place. Sure enough, with the sun lighting up the still water we could clearly see several frogs at the bottom and at its edge. While the two older kids and their mom engaged in responding to my questions about how the sand got there in the first place, (huge glaciers, taller than their house!) the 5 year old began her own sink or float science experiment. “That leaf floats!” What else floats? Would this stick float? No. Why not? What about this stick? It does? Why does that one float and the other one doesn’t? This brought me right back to when I taught kindergarten and preschool. I also pulled out my mini magnifier and encouraged the kids to use it to examine the sandy soil and then later compared it to clay.
Our conversation about how the glaciers pushed and pressed on all that rock, grinding it into either gravel, sand, clay or loam (our focus was clay or sand) turned to learning about how nonliving rock becomes soil which then, (insert a shift of kids’ interest at this point, wherein I spoke more to myself for the moment, ha!) uses atmospheric gases which encourage growth of plant life, which then dies back to create richer soil that can host bigger plant life upon which we all depend for food. (And Z. reconnects with me here.) I invited the kids to think about food that we eat and how we all need healthy soil and plants, even if we are eating meat. Z. wondered about meat-eating animals; maybe they don’t need plants? But, yes, they do. Think of an owl, I pointed out, what does it eat? “Mice.” Right. And what do mice eat? “… oh. Plants and seeds.” Yup! Oh, how I love open, teachable moments with kids who know how to think as these kids clearly do!
Ultimately, the goal today (as far as the kids were concerned) was to take me to the clay spot where they most love to play. So we left the frog pool and hiked back up to the top of the ravine. We walked along the edge, looking down its steep sides and admiring some lovely beech trees growing tall above us and offering sun-dappled shade. To get back down into the ravine where the clay was found we each used different methods. I could well see how my friend’s kids return from there absolutely “filthy,” and when the 5 year old displayed some frustration with getting down while wearing boots, I decided it was time to model going barefoot. Our toes are excellent grippers and our bare feet can help our bodies know just what to do with challenging terrain. Sure enough, once I did it, L. was willing to try it too. I felt that I wanted to make a special connection with her in part because she didn’t stay with us the last time we ventured out, and also because I know, personally, what it’s like to be the littlest one who can’t do all the same things that the older kids can.
I tried various methods to connect with her before finding that she was still interested in her sink and float experiment. So she joined me near a bit of flowing water and a smaller pool than the first one and we proceeded to experiment with sticks, a rock, and balls of clay we rolled in our hands like play dough.
Meanwhile I listened as the two older siblings took turns telling me all manner of stories about what they and their friends have done when they play down in the ravine with other neighborhood kids. I just LOVE that their adults are wisely allowing their kids to play outdoors in the wild, unstructured, nature they are privileged enough to have readily available!
Shortly before our time was up, Z. and I began making a clay dam across the rivulet of water that flowed here and there beneath a large, fallen tree. What could be more fun than challenging oneself to crossing a ravine on a log bridge? I enjoyed seeing G. doing just that, carefully balancing on the log, clearly familiar with it and confident in her own body’s abilities. We spotted another fallen tree that spanned the ravine much higher than where we were playing. Eyeing it we decided that it looked like fun, but also maybe it was too dangerously high up. One great thing about unstructured play in nature is that kids will typically not try to do more than they can safely manage. That is not to say that kids don’t take risks and sometimes get hurt, but this is part of how they learn their own limits. Most children wouldn’t attempt crossing that log if they weren’t ready to do so yet. Exceptions happen when other children sometimes dare or challenge each other to do something. An important instruction I often share with kids is that they should only challenge themselves within their comfort zone, but that it can be really dangerous to try to get someone else to do something they aren’t ready for. This was certainly not an issue with these 3. They clearly take care of and look out for each other. It is obvious that empathy and kindness are well-modeled by their parents.
G. brought back a chunk of clay with the intention to bake it. However, when she added some water, it fell apart like sand. Before I left, I suggested trying it again but without adding so much water, or to experiment with collecting clay from different sites and comparing its composition. Clay without sand will stick together nicely. Clay with sand is more likely to fall apart. I hope that her interest in this continues and she will set herself the challenge to find out more. But? If not, she will follow another interest and see where it leads her. The very best learning is self-motivated, and that is why I never try to plan too much for Woods and Wetlands. When we enter the woods (or the prairie, the swamp, the river… any wild land,) we will benefit far more by remaining open to whatever nature has in store for us in each moment, trusting ourselves, and following our own intuition and curiosity wherever they may lead.
Woods & Wetlands 