Nature at both Maverick Landing and Donald McKay this past week focused on sea-life. The kids love to talk about sea turtles and share what knowledge they have from our previous lessons. Instead of lecturing about how harmful plastics can be to the turtles, we asked the kids to remember what we’ve talked about and to include those thoughts on notecards they would then attach to turtles they made out of sugarcane plates. There was talk of plastic straws, light pollution, and plastic bags left on the beach. All these thoughts were pinned to the turtles as “wishes” to help protect the turtles now and in the future. Some may sound like commands but they assured me they were wishes.
We made turtles with the second graders over at McKay later in the week. They also surprised me with how much information they can remember about one animal.
The fourth and fifth graders got a little different experience. Heather has been collecting all kinds of shells from her trips to the beach over the past summer. The fifth graders got a chance to pore through the collection and pick their share of shells to fashion a mobile.
The fourth graders had a ball painting surf clam shells. Lots of learning going on but also it was beautiful to see the kids engaged with each other, offering to share paints, shells, and in the case of the fifth graders, offering to help each other tie knots when it was too awkward to do themselves.
The kids were sad to learn that this was the last Nature before the break. We’ll be back to learn more in the new year. Can’t wait to hear how all the gifts were received.
climatenature.org 