Memories of a kindergarten Spring inquiry: “What happens outside in the Spring?”

Did you know that every blade of new spring grass is pointy? Do you know how to grow your own weeds indoors? Did you know that dandelions might be the first beautiful wild flowers you’ll see in the spring? Did you know that if you watch a hawk flying in the sky, you can count all the way to 200 and it will not have flapped its wings even once? Did you know that if you catch a wild snake to keep as a class pet, you can feed it worms? 

We learned all this and more throughout our Spring inquiry, at the same time as we made cross-curricular connections to math (number sense, measurement, data management, location/movement), language, science, visual art.

Read more below about our experiences, including my reflections on the benefits of outdoor learning for my own mental health and well-being.

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Memories of a Spring Inquiry: “What happens outside in the spring?”

While outside ‘tapping’ trees one day toward the end of our previous maple syrup inquiry, a student noticed something incredible about one of the Red Maples in our yard. It was covered in fuzzy-looking red things! The tree had budded, and it looked beautiful! We began talking that day about signs of spring, and thus began our Spring inquiry. Here are some questions we asked that guided our explorations: “What happens outside in the spring?” “How do trees grow new leaves?” “What are the prettiest flowers?” “What are roots for?” “What do bullfrogs sound like?”

Outdoors, we were scientists, paying careful attention every day to what we could observe and experience with our senses, constantly asking ourselves “Today, what do you see? What do you think? What do you wonder?”  Did you know that every blade of new spring grass is pointy? Do you know how to transplant a weed sprout if you pull it out of the soil? Did you know that worms can be different colours and sizes? Did you know that mayflies grow inside the stems of goldenrod plants, and birds peck at the bulb-shaped homes to eat the larvae inside? Did you know that dandelions might be the first beautiful wild flowers you’ll see in the spring? Did you know that if you watch a hawk flying in the sky, you can count all the way to 200 and it will not have flapped its wings even once? Did you know that if you put a caterpillar in your terrarium, it might form a cocoon and then emerge as a moth? Do you know about the life cycle of mosquitoes, and did you know that there are many living things to find in pond water - including mosquito babies (“tumblers”)?  Did you know that looking under the bark of old dead trees is one of the best places to find living things? Did you know that the underside of a snail is called a ‘foot’? Did you know that snakes eat worms? (We learned this from the snake we caught and kept as a pet). 

As much as we could, we brought what we were learning outside into our classroom learning environment. When the trees outside budded and then grew new leaves, we added buds and then leaves to our classroom forest trees. We painted about how the trees were changing. We made art about flowers. We pulled freshly-sprouted weeds out of the soil and transplanted them in our classroom to watch them grow. We planted seeds, too. When we caught a snake, caterpillars, snails, and worms we brought them all inside to a habitat we had planned for, designed, and then made in the classroom. We loved watching the living things we brought in. We wrote fiction stories about our pets. We did positional language math to describe locations of animals and objects in our habitats. We did worm measurement and estimation math. We did weather graphing math. We did tree math, flower math, snail math, and bird math - whatever suited our changing interests and observations. Of course, every day, we continued to write in our outdoor learning journals about what we were seeing, thinking, wondering, and playing. We also continued learning so much from the library books we brought into the classroom about all the different topics we were exploring.

Reflections: 

Throughout this inquiry, I experienced a greater degree of mental health and well-being than I ever had before. I was genuinely in awe about everything I was learning with the students - noticing so many details I’d never paid attention to before because I’d never taken time to slow down and notice them - and every day I was basking in the wonder and excitement of the kids. A strong outdoor component to an inquiry-based program is not only beneficial in terms of academic growth, but also for the development of an overall sense of well-being.