Thornapple Kellogg — While outside with his class on a Wonder Walk, preschooler Bryson made an exciting discovery.
“This plant is taller than me,” he said.
A few steps ahead, his classmate Hazel exclaimed, “I found something!” She plucked the remains of a wildflower, grown brittle with the season’s change, and put it into her teacher’s bucket.
“I like to find cool things outside,” Hazel said.
TK Early Childhood Center teacher Kathy Bates leads her Great Start Readiness Program class outside for Wonder Walks two times a week, and once a month students collect things they find, like flowers, leaves and seeds.
Bates and associate teacher Trista Clapper laminate the findings and hang them in the classroom so students can observe and ask questions.
“We observe how things change over the seasons, from September to October, and ask (questions such as) ‘Why are the leaves falling?’” Clapper said.
Several classrooms at the ECC participate in Wonder Walks. The staff has participated in Learning in Places training to support outdoor and place-based learning for several years.
Kent ISD’s science educational consultant Wendi Vogel explained how teachers work with the researchers to co-design tools that support learning outdoors, timelines, family tools and land use, with an emphasis on frameworks from indigenous ways of learning.
In addition to collecting natural findings, the ECC students stopped to take a closer look at animal tracks and to catch and release grasshoppers.
Bates asked her students what kind of animal would leave the tracks found in the dirt field behind the school.
“A deer,” preschooler Sadie guessed, which was correct. Another student wondered if they could be dinosaur tracks, but Clapper assured him dinosaurs had not been walking around on Earth in a long time.
“We encourage the students to ask questions while they’re walking and building those skills,” Clapper said. “They love our walks, and we encourage students to take Wonder Walks at home to continue discovering the world around them.”
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