When spring nudges winter aside, the opportunities for learning are many, and quite a lot of it happens outside.
Spring isn’t a static event that is the same everywhere. In different parts of the country, spring can either mean that flowers have started blossoming, birds have begun to sing early in the morning, and trees have started the business of sprouting new leaves, or it can simply mean less cold and snow, that eventually leads to flowers, birds, and leaves.
While the differences are certainly there, the opportunities for teaching children, and their ability to learn, exist wherever children and teachers are.
Look at some of things that have been part of the elementary educational system since school bells first started ringing:
- charting the growth of flowers on a tree on campus
- charting the growth of flowers around school and what color they are
- charting the length of shadows on the playground
- keeping track of the amount of rain or snow that falls
- recording the high and low temperatures
- planting seeds in class, caring for them, and watching them grow
- figuring out what plants need to grow
- experiments in which seeds are denied air, or water, or soil, or sun to see what happens
- listening to the different bird calls around school or home
- painting spring scenes: flowers, birds, sunshine on the trees
- drawing and coloring a garden
- exploring how spring comes about
- reading as many stories about the end of winter and the beginning of spring as possible
The list goes on and on. The only limits are the spots that a teacher, parent, or child’s imagination runs into.
The good part here is that all of those things on the list, and many more, fit nicely into core standards or curriculum requirements.
Science, math, geometry, history, reading, language and art are all very well covered. Pick a path, and take it. Learning and education are all around you.
Source Article from http://www.examiner.com/article/spring-is-great-time-to-learn?cid=rss
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