Exploring Nature in the Puzzle Primes (3 Year-Olds)
The Puzzle Primes spend a significant part of their school day outdoors, engaging with nature. In addition to playing in their Woods Spot, we also adventure out into the campus’s vast network of trails. Hiking allows us to interact with nature directly, fostering a deep connection with the natural world. Nature provides endless opportunities for open-ended exploration, encouraging children to use all their senses to discover and make meaning from their experiences. The outdoors offers a multisensory learning experience. The Puzzle Primes can touch, smell, see, and hear the natural elements, engaging their senses in a holistic way. The hiking trails we explore provide a diverse range of textures, sounds, and scents, offering our students opportunities to explore and express themselves through various mediums.
It’s exciting to witness the imagination and play that the Puzzle Primes bring to our experiences outdoors, and we encourage our students to interact with the environment based on their own interests. While trekking up Grasshopper Hill, we encountered a tiny stream trickling out from a mossy rockbed. The children were fascinated by the scale of this mini ecosystem, and it brought up questions about how smaller creatures experience our world. They wondered about who would live in the tiny caves surrounding the stream. One student proposed, “that’s where all the newts come from.” On another occasion, the Puzzle Primes encountered a pile of birch bark stripped from its trunk, and we stopped to investigate the texture and properties of this material. One of our students connected the scroll-like appearance of the birch bark to that of a treasure map, and the rest of our journey was transformed from a hike into a treasure seeking expedition.
As educators, we strive to instill values of sustainability and environmental stewardship. Hiking provides a real-world context for discussing topics such as conservation and respecting nature. Hiking can be an opportunity to explore local flora and fauna, encouraging discussions about the environment and its significance. Many Puzzle Primes, for instance, are very excited to encounter the diverse species of fungi that grow in the woods. How do we interact with these strange and fascinating mushrooms in a way that is safe for our bodies, and respectful to nature? Rather than dissect or manipulate with our hands, we examine with our eyes and practice careful observation.
When we set out on a hiking expedition, we encounter many opportunities to embody allyship. As a class, we have read and discussed We Move Together, and we know that every body moves at their own pace. We are patient and respectful when a classmate needs more time to move through our journey. When, for example, a steep climb feels challenging to a classmate, we offer our support and use encouraging words.
When the Puzzle Primes set out on a hike, we seek to engage their imaginations, empower them to be respectful environmental stewards, and build a sense of community and allyship among one another.