The Importance of the Outdoor Prepared Environment to the Life Sciences

This past week, the children discovered this little character living amongst the zucchini in our garden (perhaps this is one of the little praying mantis's we hatched and released at the beginning of the summer?). Our animated guest was a good sport; he spent the morning in the classroom observation terrarium, then dutifully walked across their little hands at line time, and entertained the fascinated children by bravely defending himself by waving his little arms frantically about before fluttering off.

Watching the children with their insect companion really clarified the importance of the outside prepared environment. Young children are consummate naturalists; as Montessori noted, they are "sensorial explorers" who absorb every aspect of their environment. Providing children with the opportunity to interact daily with the plants and animals that surround them is an essential part of the child's experience as it affords them with the opportunity to carefully observe natural phenomena (the changing of seasons, the lifecycles of plants and animals, the importance of pollinators, a food chain, and an ecosystem).

The Montessori method of education sees education as a natural, spontaneous process in which children actively construct and refine their understanding of abstract concepts by scaffolding the information around meaningful experiences, rather than treating children as if they were empty vessels to be filled with memorized facts and accumulated wisdom.

It is experiences like these, in the natural environment, with living creatures, that serve to reconnect children with nature, to spark their interest in the natural sciences and the world around them, and to provide children with an authentic Montessori education in the natural sciences.

Our children have been lucky to have had many such visitors.

We are extremely fortunate to have a beautiful outdoor prepared environment, replete with mature trees, beautiful butterflies, friendly rabbits, grape vines which are just beginning to turn purple, apple trees laden with with fruit just beginning to show the first blush of fall, and the occasional slug or interesting insect. These daily hands on experiences (collecting fallen apples, running out to the garden to surreptitiously taste the grapes, or gathering vegetables and herbs from the garden), help to bring the children in touch with the natural environment and draw their attention to the changing of the seasons and the lifecycles of plants and animals in a way that no other "lesson," or an over-groomed playground, ever could.

Not surprisingly, given the excitement generated by our outdoor prepared environment, the weekly CSA share, the vegetable garden, raising butterflies, ladybugs, and praying mantises, and field trips to the CSA farm and the apiary, the botany and life sciences works inside the classroom have also seen a flurry of activity.

Once the children have had real, meaningful, concrete experiences, the carefully prepared classroom materials help to deepen the child's understanding of the more abstract princples and concepts involved and allow the children to actively construct meaning from their experiences. This is particularly important in assisting young children in their understanding of botany and the life sciences.

I have to admit to having fallen a little behind in posting photographs about what we have been up to. Over the past few months, the children have busied themselves with carefully dissecting flowers,

making "Parts of the Plant" and "Parts of the Flower" booklets,

working with botany puzzles,

pressing flowers,

producing naturalist drawings and watercolour paintings,

and learning to recognize and appreciate different fruits and vegetables.

The children particularly enjoyed matching the set of knitted vegetables my assistant made, matching 3 Part Cards of different fruits and vegetables,

sorting miniature vegetables,

and reading about vegetables and how they are grown.

Then, there were the mounted specimens of honeybees, and other arthropods, to examine,the wooden candlestick holders to paint,

and the beeswax candles to fashion.

There were "Honey Circles" to be baked (imagine a light, golden cookie that is a perfect combination of sweet and salty- made with only six ingredients- whole wheat flour, salt, vanilla, oil, honey, and sunflower seeds). This is one of my favorite baking projects both due to both the absolute simplicity of the ingredients and the fact that it incorporates both honey and sunflower seeds, making a great project to supplement both the unit on pollinators and parts of a flower.

And, of course, there was the zucchini to be grated,

baked into fragrant mini loaves,

wrapped and tied by the older children (who practiced their bow tying),

and taken home to share with mom and dad.

Finally, there were seeds to collect and investigate. The children were very interested in examining the structure of different seeds and in sorting them based upon their different methods of dispersal (that they have structural differences in design which facilitate their travel in wind, in water, by hitching a ride on animals, by being eaten by animals, and using mechanical properties of the seed pod).

It is such a pleasure to watch young children in the process of investigating the world around them.

Field Trip to the Apiary in the Growing Gardens Children's Peace Garden

"On an open lot, there's a garden patch grown by children who live in the neighborhood.

A sign on the garden's gate says Children's Garden Welcome!

That means: Come in, please. Listen, see, smell, touch- even taste."

-In the Children's Garden, by Carole Lexa Schaefer, 1994

Over the course of our summer program, the children have been learning about the lifecycle of plants, the parts of a plant, the role of insects as pollinators, and about several types of arthropods- including honeybees! Today, the children furthered their learning with an outing to visit the apiary at the Children's Peace Garden in Boulder, Colorado. The children had the opportunity to view a working beehive, taste honey, and put on special child sized beekeeper suits to interact with living bees.
Our outing began with a ride on a school bus! The children lined up attentively and rode to Boulder with impeccable manners (they did not require so much as one reminder to lower their voices). In fact, our bus driver, Patrick, remarked to me several times on the exemplary behavior of the students (an occurrence which, much to my pleasure, was repeated several times throughout the day- complete strangers came up to me while we were in the garden and remarked upon the politeness and courtesy demonstrated by the children and incredulously asked me how old they were)! Apparently, the short busses that we normally get were getting some routine maintenance; so, the children were absolutely delighted to get to ride on a full size school bus (for several, this was their first ride on a school bus)!

After a short ride, we arrived at the Growing Gardens Children's Peace Garden. The Growing Gardens is an incredible, local, non-profit devoted to cultivating community through gardening. They teach environmentally sustainable gardening programs to children and adolescents, as well as horticultural therapy programs for the elderly and the developmentally disabled. They maintain a large organic children's garden and apiary (beekeeping operation) that is visited by 1,500 children annually; additionally, they manage more than 450 community garden plots, administer the Cultiva! Youth Project (an organic market garden maintained by adolescents aged 11-19 who donate a percentage of the yield to those in need and sell the remainder at the Farmers Market), and maintain fifteen active beehives at the site.

We were fortunate to have chosen a beautiful, sunny day for our visit.


The gardens were bustling with activity; everywhere we looked, people were weeding, pushing wheelbarrows filled to the brim, or resting under the tents with cool drinks. We meandered through the garden until we met up with our thoughtful host, Assistant Director of the Children's Peace Garden, Kirsten Bell and her assistant, Ainsley.

Kirsten and Ainsley began taking the excited children on a tour of the gardens. The Children's Peace Garden consists of several smaller themed gardens- including a Butterfly/Pollinator Garden, a Pizza Garden (a vegetable garden which contains all of the toppings usually found in pizzas), a lovely gooseberry patch, a hutch covered with grape vines, and numerous plots and raised beds.

The sun shone brightly on the Flatirons in the distance as the delighted children rambled through the gardens, where they saw a variety of vegetables and flowers.

Finally, we made our way out of the gardens and down a shaded path toward the apiary.

Once the children had assembled, our thoughtful hosts began with a fun activity in which the children learned about and performed a dramatization of the lifecycle of a honey bee.

They children began their "bee life" as eggs laid singly in a cell in a wax honeycomb,

they hatched into larvae,

and were fed more than one hundred times a day by busy worker bees.

The larvae undergo several moltings before spinning a cocoon within a cell and pupating. Then, the worker bees cover the brood cells with a wax cap, from which the adult bees must eat their way out

before emerging and taking their first flight.

After the lifecycle activities, the children learned about the roles assumed by the different types of bees that live in the hive, their important role in pollination, and about the basics of honey production.

They also got to examine some hands on bee products- including honeycombs, beeswax, several preserved specimens, and one of the honey supers/frames which the bees build their combs on.

At last, it was time for the climax of our study of honeybees, the trip to a real, working, apiary hive! Beekeepers wear gloves, boots, coveralls, and a broad-rimmed hat to protect themselves from bee stings. Beekeepers traditionally wear white because bees have difficulty seeing light colors; the light-colored outfit "hides" the beekeeper from the bees.

In preparation for visiting the hive (and in the most photogenic moment of the trip), our little beekeepers donned these darling miniature beekeeping suits!

Then, our cute cadre of very excited beekeepers marched off in search of the hive.

The hive is filled with frames on which the bees build combs. Unfortunately, we were not able to take a lot of pictures here for fear of upsetting the bees, but if you have never seen a working beehive, it is quite an astounding sight (bustling and yet extremely organized). The sheer quantity of bees is staggering and there is the most incredible, audible, humming sound. It is also easy to understand the fascination many people have with these diligent workers and how they have become emblematic of hard work, perseverance, and as a metaphor for ideal civil governance. The hives at the Children's Garden were specially built with large windows on the side which allowed the children to watch the flurry of activity occurring in the hive. The children seemed absolutely transfixed by the activity of the forager bees, busily returning from the garden with pollen and nectar.

Afterwards, the children got to examine some of the beekeeping tools, including the smoker. Beekeepers spray smoke into the hives to calm the bees before checking the honeycombs. Kirsten explained that when smoke is sprayed into the hive the bees instinctively begin eating honey (if the hive were on fire this would help them to "stock up"), which causes them to become drowsy and calm.

Afterwards, Kirsten led the children through the garden to an arbor that was covered with honeysuckle vines. She asked the children what they thought nectar tastes like and why bees like to eat it; then, in a simple, but extremely effective demonstration (which seemed positively inspired to me), she allowed each of them to pick a honeysuckle blossom to sample. Needless to say, the children quickly understood the bees fondness for nectar.
Then, the children participated in a "pollinator relay." The children took turns pretending to be honeybees, racing through the gardens in search of nectar. The children got to pick a flower and return to the "hive," where they performed a bee dance to indicate where the other bees should go in search of flowers.

The children were very pleased with their flowers, and I was tremendously impressed with how much botany they had absorbed. Several of them took a few moments to locate the pollen and the various structures of their flower (hopefully, our guests were not too put off by the children's penchant for taking flowers apart- flower dissection is one of their current favorite activities).

Finally (as one relieved boy exclaimed), the children were treated to a taste of the honey from the hive. Not surprisingly, it turns out that the bees make incredibly tasty honey!

After all that running, dancing, and "flying" through the garden, it was time to take our exhausted little beekeepers back to the school.

Our sincerest thanks goes to our knowledgeable hosts, Kirsten Bell and Ainsley, and Growing Gardens, for providing the children with an amazing, hands-on experience, that I am sure the children will be talking about for a long time to come. For more information about their programs, please visit their website at: http://www.growinggardens.org/.

We would also like to thank our bus driver, Patrick, and the St. Vrain Valley School District Busses and Transportation for making our trip today possible.