Woods Recovery Zones in the Super Primes (4-5 Yr.-Olds)

The preschool classrooms share a woods spot just below the fenced in play yard, outside of the preschool entry. When we first arrived on campus two years ago, and chose this spot, it had recently been partially cleared by the landscapers. This provided us with plenty of space to run, and explore. It also meant that there were not a whole lot of green, growing things inside our boundary. There was a mossy hillside, which we quickly wore away with hours of play. Before school started this fall,  teachers met to discuss our plans for the woods spot. We decided that we would like to mark off areas of the woods and allow some of the green to grow back.

In the first few days in the woods with the children, we introduced the concept of Woods Recovery Zones. We started by defining the words in Super Primes style. A definition should give information about the word without using the word itself. Woods are “a place where trees are growing close together.” Recovery is “a time when you are getting better from being sick.” A zone is “a place or area.” We marked three areas with yellow yarn, and talked about the importance of not walking or playing in these areas so that things might start to grow back.  We spent some time observing the three zones and decided to name them. The Moss Zone is an area near the back hill where some moss is trying to grow. In The Fern Zone we noticed some tiny ferns trying to push their way through the compacted ground. Two bumble bees and several saplings were spotted in the Bee and Baby Tree Zone.

Back in the classroom, the Super Primes were presented with two questions and some drawing materials. This would be a chance to draw what they thought. “What do you remember from the recovery zones? What do you hope to see in the recovery zones?”

Super Primes then spent some time exploring the swale (the area near the bridges in front of the school). They were told to spend some time walking around the area, but to be gentle and observant. After several minutes they were called to gather on the large rock. We asked them what they saw.

• “A fly on a rock.” -Violet

• “Brown headed flowers.” -Izzy

• “Lots of grass and leaves.” -Chase

• “Some fluff.” -Korra

• “Bugs.” -Sam

• “Baby trees.” -Liliana

• “I think that reminds me of the Baby Tree and Bee Zone.” -Izzy

• “Flowers.” -Norah

• “A log.” -Whitney

• “Grass, clovers, a tree.” 

Before the second mission to explore the swale, teachers explained that the swale is actually very similar to our Woods Recovery Zones. “Why do you think this land would need to recover after building the school?”

• ”By storing piles of materials.” -Izzy

• ”Driving big trucks over the land.” -Violet

• “Scraping the land to make these bridges.” -Sam

During our second gentle walk around the swale, Super Primes were asked to report back about any living creatures they saw by drawing on the sidewalk with chalk. 

• “I drew the grass that I saw. And these are drops of water.” -Chase

• “I saw this kind of bug.”-Sam

• “This is a butterfly that I saw, I really saw this.” -Whitney

• “I hope I see all of these things in the swale someday.” -Junie

• “These are the blueberry bushes in the swale, I promise.” -Violet