Memories of a grade 5/6 Backyard Bugs inquiry: “What lives in our backyard?”

An outdoor photo scavenger hunt was abandoned when we found a praying mantis and wanted to keep it as a pet. This initial discovery led to a full inquiry to learn as much as we could about the living things in our yard. By the end of this learning journey, our terrarium was home to at least 40 different species of living things!

Read on to hear about my first experience testing my outdoor/experiential/inquiry-based teaching approach with a grade 5/6 class!

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Memories of a backyard bugs inquiry - “What lives in our backyard?”

What began as an outdoor photo scavenger hunt turned into a more exciting afternoon than we'd expected when some students found a praying mantis and a spider. This sparked our first inquiry. We abandoned the scavenger hunt and rushed inside to do some research because the students wanted to keep the insects as pets, but I would only allow that if we knew how to take good care of them first. They'd need food and a suitable habitat. 

Over the course of the week, the grade 6s began preparing proposals (based on their research) about how to build the best habitats for praying mantises and spiders. Meanwhile, the grade 5s formed two political parties and had an election to form a government to look after the affairs of the bugs. They listened to the scientists' proposals in the House of Commons (baseball diamond) and after considering all of the proposals, each political party chose one to put forward as a "bill", to then be debated in the House and the Senate (other ball diamond), and then finally be signed by the governor general (our vice-principal) to become the law about how to create the best habitat. The government then established task forces to take action and begin habitat construction. 

While searching for food and other items for the habitat, we came across many other living things to research and identify. Students loved looking at the nonfiction books we checked out of the library and used them to help identify the living things they’d found outside.

We learned that creatures with no backbones are called invertebrates, and invertebrates can be classified as insects, arachnids, or myriapods, depending on how many legs they have. We had many of each of these invertebrates in our terrarium, and we wrote reports about them. We also wrote essays about what we considered to be the most interesting of all the living things in our terrarium. (The favourites were the huge brown and orange pandorus sphynx moth caterpillars). By the end of this inquiry, we’d collected at least 40 different species of living things - and unintentionally discovered that many of them are part of each other’s food webs! 

One day, we watched our principal release some monarch butterflies he’d tagged for the “Monarch Watch” program. This inspired the students to specifically try to find Monarch caterpillars. We learned they are a "Species of Special Concern," and we wanted to find some so we could raise them, tag them when they became butterflies, and be able to track their migration to Mexico.

They were challenging to find, but finally we did find two monarch caterpillars, and caught one monarch butterfly. Our principal taught us how to tag it, and we were proud that ours was the only ‘wild’ butterfly to be tagged that month at our school! 

We wondered why monarchs are a species of special concern, so we researched about threats facing monarchs. We learned why monarchs need milkweed, and also considered why farmers need to keep milkweed plants out of their fields. Understanding both the farmers' perspectives, as well as the fact that monarchs need milkweed to survive, we wrote letters to the federal and provincial Ministers of Agriculture, suggesting how they might find beneficial solutions to the milkweed problem for both farmers and monarchs. Ernie Haredemann, the provincial Minister of Agriculture, wrote personalized letters back to every student, thanking them for using their knowledge and their voices to try to make a difference! 

One student stated that bugs and animals are not the only living things in our backyard. Plants are also alive. We decided to try to identify some of the plants growing on our trail, and one student discovered a sign that the township had put up to identify a particular invasive species in the area. We wondered about this, so we researched and learned that there are several kinds of invasive species of plants in Ontario - many of which are close look-alikes to some of the plants that grow along our trail. We researched about invasive plants and then made careful observations to determine whether our trail plants are native or invasive. We did a lot of measurement, as height and leaf size are important factors in distinguishing between native and invasive plants. We think we might have identified an invasive "European Highbush Cranberry" plant. It's more than 4m tall, has clusters of bright red berries, and has leaves similar to the shape of maple leaves.

Throughout this inquiry, all of our math work was related to bugs and other living things in our yard. During language times, the students articulated how much easier it is to generate ideas for writing when they’ve had meaningful experiences with what they’re writing about and when they’re personally interested in the research they’re doing. Besides the science and social studies learning that also went on, we incorporated art into this inquiry by creating pastel drawings, paintings, and sculptures that would tell the story of what lives in our backyard.

Reflections: 

Through this inquiry, a sense of whole-class cohesiveness was created. Students shared amazing memories and significant emotional experiences throughout this inquiry, which now connected them as a community of friends. Everyone felt included and everyone shared in each other’s excitement when new discoveries were made. Students who may not have previously considered themselves to be ‘leaders’ were valued and respected because they proved to be the most knowledgeable experts about the outdoors and about living things. For me, I realized that outdoor/experiential/inquiry-based learning is as exciting, enjoyable, and beneficial for junior students as it is for Kindergarten students. (AND the parents of my juniors were even MORE excited about this approach to teaching and learning than had been the super-enthusiastic parents of my kindies the year before)!