august 2024
Further Investigating Our Natural Environment
In the month of August, the children in the Toddler Program have continued to explore their curiosities regarding their natural environment! To expand on the children’s wonderings that have occurred in July, we have dived deeper into all the possibilities that our environment has to offer. We have done this by bringing many of our findings from our outdoor play space indoors, such as bringing in branches to display in our room, collecting rocks and pinecones to paint on or sort with, bringing in a variety of flowers to incorporate into our art/sensory experiences, etc.! Additionally, the children have continued to have a large interest in our garden! Whenever we head outside to explore our outdoor play space, the children are eager to check on our garden as well. Over the past few weeks, the children have collected dozens of snap peas, lettuce, green onion, beets, and even a few carrots! While exploring our garden, we also discovered that there are 3 butternut squashes growing in the garden as well! “A pumpkin!” said E as she examined the squash. “Baby pumpkin!” said M as he sifted through the leaves to find the small pumpkin. “It’s growing!” said S! As we are inching closer to the Fall season, the children have recently noticed some crunchy leaves on the ground as well!
I wonder if the children’s curiosities about their natural environment will continue to grow as the seasons change?
Emily Merenda RECE, Smriti Bhoray ECE BEd BA in special education
