At the start of each season the kindergarten class does a seasonal WANDER. Children are given time and asked to explore their surroundings with only one sense, reporting their observations back to the group. During our Spring Wander children observed green plants, a little snow, water, quicksand, squishy sounds, holes in the ground, bird sounds, stinky water, sinking into the ground, moss, nature smell, foamy water, a dribble sound, a stream, an underground river, and more.
After sharing their observations children are invited to brainstorm questions about their observations. Some of the questions they came up with are: Do worms have bones? Why are some trees not sprouting and some are? Where does the water go? Why do some places stay snowy? Why have the big trees been falling but the little ones haven't? Why is there so much mud? Why is the water foamy? What was that new sound in our outdoor classroom? Where does the water come from? Why is the stream underground?
With water being a major point of interest and wonder for our class, we went out exploring the waterways on and around our school campus during our forest days last week. On Thursday we followed Norton Brook as it made its way away from school, and on Friday we broke up into two teams, one exploring a marsh and the other looking at some other flowing waterways on campus. To guide our work children were asked to think about: Where is the water? What is it doing? and Why? Below you will see some of the pictures from our outdoor days as well as some of the conversations children had.
"I want to go but I'm scared. I will go if you go with me."
"It's okay, look it's fun!"
"It's not wet in there."
"It's not dark all the way."
"Why does the water move?"
"It's slanting down."
"But why does water only go downhill?"
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"The puddle sinks down into the ground."
"It's a cave!"
"No, it's an underground lake!"
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"Icicles are a type of water."
"So are puddles."
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"Hey! This is the exact same stream we were following yesterday!"
"I bet if we walked long enough we could get to the ocean!"
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"Why isn't my boat moving at this part of the stream?"
"Maybe the force is not so strong?"
"Maybe it got stuck on something."
"Maybe it was too shallow"
"Uh, do fish live there?"
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"Where does that other stream come from?"
"How many streams did we pass by?"
"I think it was 11!"
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"There's a dip over there... could the stream come from there?"
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"The water looks cloudy, like when we look at the eggs with the candler!"
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"It's moving fast here!"
"It's very calm now!"
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"When the river is thinner there is more water... like it's deeper!"
