Introduction
I teach a small private kindergarten class in the city of Spruce Grove, Canada. Spruce Grove is a suburban "bedroom community," most community members work in Edmonton, Alberta's capital city. The topic of our first project was a small park.
In our "park project" we used a nearby vacant lot of land as our study site. The land was one block away from our school and had bushes, trees, birds, and a picnic table. Our project developed during February and March 2000, so the snow was plentiful and the trees were mostly barren. It was a great time to make careful observations of nature.
Preliminary Planning
"The Park" was selected as our project for many reasons: first, the children had expressed enthusiasm earlier when learning about the impact of seasonal changes in nature. The empty plot of land had a variety of trees, bushes and winter birds we could study.
Second, I enjoy nature very much and thought the project would help the children make a connection to their natural environment. I believe individuals need to care about something before they make an effort to take care of it. I hope my students will actively help to take care of their community and its parks. Third, its proximity facilitated many brief field visits. Prior to beginning the project I had no idea or expectation of its outcome. I took a leap of faith.
Phase 1
Phase 1 of our project consisted of four activities. The first was storytelling. The children shared their knowledge about parks. They told of experiences they had had at parks. Their general knowledge of parks was extensive but their knowledge of the empty plot of land located near the school was limited to their experiences of tobagganing and bird watching.
Our second activity involved taking paper and crayons to the plot to do crayon rubbings of any interesting surfaces. The children enjoyed the freedom to individually explore the park. During the group discussion that followed, the children shared their rubbings and thoughts. Many observations were made, mainly about trees. One child stated, "Some trees have bumpy skin and other trees have smoothy skin." It was also noted that trees can be fat or skinny and some have no leaves while others are green. The children were quite excited during this discussion.
The third activity required the children to make representations of their knowledge of parks. The children made drawings, paintings, lego models, playdough and plastercine representations of the park. One student decided our park needed a name and a sign. With the consent of his peers he named the park "Kindergarten Park." Along with two other children they painted a park sign. The sign has "Kindergarten Park" painted on it twice!! All the children drew and painted park pictures.
The children's work became more detailed and questions arose in their dialogue. Some questions included: "What is tree skin called?" "Are the berries on the trees and bushes poisonous?" "In the winter, is the grass dead or resting?" The grass issue became a topic of debate for days. The children were expressing their opinions but still the question remained unanswered!
Last, we made observations and observational sketches at our park. Initially, we took magnifying glasses to the park to observe interesting things. Snow had fallen the previous night so footprints were easily located. The snow, snow hill, trees, bushes and birds were all carefully inspected. At first one child did not wish to participate, but she was soon drawn into the action. Her classmates were so excited to share their interesting discoveries that she was unable to stay away. In fact, she did not want the observations to end and was the last to get in line when returning to school. The following day the children returned to the park to make observational sketches. The sketches were then referred to when painting. One example is shown below.
Phase 1 of our park project lasted six days. The children were not enthusiastic until we started to visit the park. The study visits enabled the children to see things at the park that they had overlooked before.
Phase 2
Phase 2 of our project consisted of field work, the exploration of snow, ice and water, photography, reading books, map making, dramatizing park play and learning from visiting experts. This phase lasted for approximately two weeks. During this time our classroom was a buzz of activity. Our class had become an imaginary park!
We began by collecting snow to study in our class. A live bug was found within our pile of snow. The bug was observed and then its home was built. One child knew that breathing holes were a necessity in a bug home. The bug was observed daily and was sometimes included in dramatic play. The children's research was unsuccessful at identifying the bug..When our bug died a student exclaimed, "WELL, bugs need food too!!!"
Our snow eventually melted and it was sieved and measured. Items such as leaves, twigs, berries, stones, etc. were extracted, sorted and used for play and craft. This activity answered our question, "Is snow dirty?" We decided eating snow was not a good idea.
One student requested we put the snow water into the freezer. By our next class it had turned to ice. We had answered yet another question! We decided that, yes, snow is ice. During the next field visit the children each took one photograph of something interesting at the park. The photos were later displayed and could be used as references. Using a camera independently was an unique experience for all the children.
A mother of one of the students who works as a librarian brought the class several park books. We read them together and then displayed and reread them individually. The books illustrated various types of parks. A few books also contained maps.
Map making was introduced to the children by reading the book, Me On The Map. We then went to the park and as a group created a diorama of the park. We took turns placing items on the plexiglass base. Shells represented snowhills, wooden train track represented the roadways and pinecones became bushes. The children returned to the park the following day with clipboards and pencils in hand. They each made a map. The eight students made eight very unique maps. One student mapped how to get to the park from her house. Another child mapped what she could see from the park. Map making was a skill the children learned quickly and continued to use.
Along with studying the park the children created a park in the classroom. The children became animals by wearing animal masks and costumes. Forest animal puppets were used. Pieces of material, tables, chairs, pillows and boxes were used as park props. Maps, magnifying glasses, binoculars and cameras added to the dramatic play. Our class was alive with activity that changed daily but always concerned our park.
Our expert visitors came at the end of Phase 2 of our project. The first expert was a mother who loves nature and possesses many animal and bird artifacts. She shared many stories. The children learned how to touch the fox, moose and deer pelts. We learned how it is important to pet from head to tail. We also looked at a wide variety of birds and bird feet. The mother asked the children many simple questions concerning the functions of fur, feathers and feet. The artifacts were then set out on tables and the children recorded on their clipboards the things they wished to remember. The afternoon was incredible!
The other expert visitor was a naturalist from the John Janzen Nature Centre. She also brought animal artifacts, nature games and new tools to help us observe trees, grass and snow. She shared with the children a beaver pelt and tail. We played a game about a mouse and a hungry owl. She explained the life cycle of grass. Last year's grass was dead while the roots of this year's grass was resting. Everyone was right! The expert visitors brought closure to questions the children were unable to answer themselves.
Phase 3
Phase 3 had the children creating books, games, maps and posters that indicated what they knew about or experienced at our park. The children referred to their folder of work. Books, games and maps were the favorite projects.
In late March, student-led parent conferences were held. This is the children's opportunity to show their parents what they have been learning in kindergarten and is a very exciting evening for the students. One centre displayed our project work. A trifold and a photo album were available for the parents to read. The children showed their parents their folders of work. Unfortunately I was unable to photograph this wonderful event as my camera was not in working order. Below I have included the parents' written comments regarding the park project.
*My daughter was very excited about the "park" project. She liked coloring on wood circles and has done it since. She is also very interested in maps since the project and has done two maps at home since. On two separate occasions she asked about how to draw a map of how to get to our home.
*My son liked the park project very much. I heard about it every day as we passed the park on the way to kindergarten. Since the project my son has become very proficient at drawing maps. He also seemed to really like the close observation aspects: using the magnifying glass, observing the bug in the bug jar house etc. I think it was a great project for the kids. They really developed a sense of ownership. My son still calls it "Our Park" and notices changes as we drive past.
*I thought the Nature Project was very impressive. The kids in the photos seem to really have enjoyed making and building things. I know my son enjoys the outdoors and the wilderness, he talked about it all the time.
*My son had a lot of fun with the project. He talked about it every day he visited. A great idea!
*My daughter is drawing maps of everything at home. The other day she put her easel in the kitchen and drew the bricks on the wall, the birds and their cage and her sister sitting in a chair. Everything was drawn in careful proximity.
*My daughter became very interested in what animals ate, particularly when they ate other animals.
*My daughter had a lot of fun with this project. She is always drawing maps of the park. She talked to us about all the events of each visit. I think it was a great idea.
Conclusion
Our kindergarten class continues to observe at the park. Presently, the tree buds are growing. Did you know buds can be brown, fuzzy, smooth or sticky? The snow has melted so now we play T-ball at our park too. I think the children will always think of the empty plot of land as "Our Park."
As I mentioned earlier, this was my first project and I took a leap of faith. I had no expectations and was amazed throughout most of our project work. I found the preparation for project work less taxing than planning for a theme and its related activities. During classtime, however I found I had to be more alert. I spent a great deal of time scribing the children's work. I asked a lot more questions and was always ready to facilitate when necessary. Our class time was more dynamic, interactive and unpredictable. The children's' learning was less prescribed and more natural.
The children thoroughly enjoyed doing fieldwork. They used the clipboards and took their work very seriously. While at the park the children remained on task. I never worried about them leaving the park. I realized the project work created a more trusting relationship between the students and myself. I trusted them to make observations, observational drawings, photographs and maps. The children were more independent workers and did the best work they could. They felt a great deal of ownership of the park and its related work.
Project work promoted better communication between everyone involved in the class. My class consists of mostly young kindergarten students, thus working cooperatively has been a challenging task. During our discussions the children enjoyed sharing their ideas, discoveries and work. The children seemed more interested in listening to each other's thoughts, gave positive feedback to each other and appreciated each other's strengths and abilities. All the students expressed themselves very confidently. It was like a light was turned on inside of the students. It was surprising, exciting and wonderful to watch.
Our excitement and enthusiasm for the project built as we made more visits to the "Kindergarten Park". The children were going home and talking about the park with their families and I was telling my husband. I was just as eager to share the children's work with others. The work they did deserved to be shared. It was original and brilliant!
Ann Sheehan, Teacher
April 2000.