This week’s lesson was a pretty classic day at Prairie Creek, and it even included water, just like our group lesson plan!

Objectives:

To articulate examples of phenology
To make predictions about temperature changes
To use their daily observations to make more advanced conclusions about the natural world

Warm Up: On the whiteboard, Nancy wrote the word phenology with three arrows pointing to “animals,” “plants,” and “weather.” She began by asking the students about what changes they had noticed lately in both the world and in their bodies. Students responded by mentioning that they felt more tired, that Daylight Savings threw them off, and that they were wearing more clothing and coats because it is colder outside. Nancy then introduced the activity for the day by showing them two Kemps ice cream buckets with faces taped to them–named Ted and Ned–and her winter hat that she was going to put on one of the buckets. (5 minutes)

Motivational Strategies:

Nancy was really good about encouraging students in their observations about phenology. She reinforced good thinking skills, such as using all of their senses to interpret their observations, and she was good about praising students for doing this. She supported all of the students’ creative ideas and used them as examples for other students who needed assistance.

Nancy also went around and encouraged her students to share their poems and stories. For the ones who were shy, she told them to take a “responsible risk” and read it out loud.

Activities:

10 minutes: The activity for the morning was to put boiling hot water into both of the ice cream buckets.The students went to the kitchen, where Nancy poured equal amounts of hot water into the buckets (explaining to them how to correctly set up scientific experiments), and then took the temperature of both to make sure that they were close to the same temperature (they were around 61 degrees Fahrenheit). Then, she put the winter hat on one of the buckets and left the other one open, and set them both in the fridge to sit for about half an hour and told the kids to think about what might happen.

15 minutes: The next part of the morning was outside. The students took their nature notebooks outside and were supposed to take time to write in their journals. They made guesses about the temperature outside, wrote down descriptions of the weather, looked at the clouds and tried to figure out what type of clouds they were, and used wind guides to determine how windy it was. During this time, they were able to journal freely, talk to their neighbors, roam around the field, and make predictions.

20 minutes: Then, the class moved to the brush on the edge of Prairie Creek’s land. Their instructions were to find a spot to “plop down” in the brush near the fields. Some of the students went down into the little valley where water sometimes runs, while others stayed on the dirt up high. In their chosen spot, they sat with their nature notebooks and wrote about the phenology and changes in plants and animals that they witnessed. Some students sat together and wrote poems, while others sat alone and drew squirrels or described the color of the grass. There was room for a lot of creativity and freedom in what they did. As they walked back inside after this, Nancy instructed them to talk to someone about what they think might have happened with the water inside.

Closure:

Since I was only there for the morning part of Wild Wednesday, I do not think that they were completely done with their lesson, but at the end of the morning, they returned to the kitchen, where each student went around and stuck their hand in both ice cream buckets to feel the difference in temperatures. (5 minutes)

I presume that Nancy discussed the water experiment more in depth with them later in the day.

Follow-Up: I was not there for the ending discussion, but I assume that a good way to follow-up could have been by having a discussion where they tie the water experiment into their observations outside as the seasons changed and explaining how this can teach them about scientific processes. Maybe they will even do it again in the winter!

Nancy’s lesson structure was clearly intentional. She perfectly began the day with a warm up question, led her students into the lesson in an active and engaging way, and encouraged them to think about what they were doing. I was really pleased to see everyone working so calmly outside in the brush; Nancy let them sit where they wanted, work with who they wanted, and be creative about their nature notebook entries. Some students worked alone, some relied on the adults for encouragement, some used each other for ideas, and they were able to be active during parts of the morning, giving those with different learning styles a chance to move and be comfortable in their activities. To me, the lesson appeared to be very successful because everyone’s nature notebook entries were extremely thoughtful, detailed, and unique. I could tell that everyone understood the assignment and challenged themselves. As for the other part of the lesson, I was not there to see how their discussion wrapped up, but I hope that it was successful.

I waited a week to do this blog post because last week there was a substitute teacher in class. I thought it was really interesting to think about substitute teachers and talk to AnnaLisa (Nancy’s sub) about it. I remember from my school years that substitute teachers were often disrespected because there was a change in who was in charge and students loved an excuse to goof off. What makes a good substitute teacher? I noticed that the students in Nancy’s class were very off-task and inattentive with the substitute. As AnnaLisa put it, “Nancy runs a tight ship,” and I definitely agree with that!

Something else that was really fun to watch was the end of their time outside on Wednesday. One of the kids discovered that they could jump from one side of the brush valley to the middle, and the entire class ended up lining up to jump through the brush. It was really fun to watch Nancy support their crazy idea, and I love how the structure of Prairie Creek allows students to be active like this.

Here are the kids in the brush!