looking closely: finding treasures

The kindergarten students in Mrs. Grisdale's class at General Currie went outside on a beautiful, crisp autumn day to spend over an hour looking closely at nature's treasures. We had all sorts of amazing finds - chestnuts, acorns, leaves of all sorts, special tree bark, mushrooms and dandelions seeds.

This class spread their wings and travelled a little farther than they usually do when they go outside. General Currie has a huge park area and many older trees. The children found many many treasures and I noticed an acorn or too being quietly placed in pockets. The students were on a treasure hunt looking for acorn "hats".

This class has been working on observing using their five senses and you could really tell by the types of comments the students made - they had so many great descriptive words and great connections!

"It's like a belly button on the tree."

"English Bay" (ESL level 1 student connecting white birch bark to tree she saw at English Bay!)

"Leaves are falling from the sky."

"It is prickly."

"There was red transparent stuff stuck to the tree."

"The bark is smooth and bumpy. It's white like in the book."

"I found a rainbow of leaves."

The kindergarten students were excited to be scientists and took pride in the special tools they were given to look closely when they were outside. One little guy asked if he could use the Olloclip on my iPod Touch and after taking a few photos exclaimed, "That's like a magnifying glass for your camera!" 

I'm looking forward to working with this group of young scientists again!
~Janice