Can a simple outdoor activity, such as weeding the garden, be a vehicle in which the children demonstrate accomplishment of standards and benchmarks?
Encourage the children to weed the garden? Some folks would argue that it’s a waste of valuable learning time. Custodians or gardeners get paid to do such work. Some early years educators and parents would rather young children be learning their letter sounds and practicing their fine motor skills using pencils, scissors and paper.
Recently while reading the Florida Early Learning and Developmental Standards: 4 Years Old to Kindergarten (2017), I gave myself a challenge. If a parent expressed concern that their child was pulling up weeds instead of writing his letters, would I be able to defend that learning experience (weeding) by linking it to developmental standards and benchmarks? Could I articulate that weeding the garden was a complex learning experience that gave students an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills across a range of domains, such as Approaches to Learning, Physical Development, Social and Emotional Development, Language and Literacy, Mathematical Thinking, Scientific Inquiry and Social Studies?
I set out to answer my questions by reading every domain’s standards and benchmarks. Frankly, I was surprised the only domain that pulling up weeds did not have an immediate connection with was Creative Expression Through the Arts!
For those of you who enjoy curriculum-related blog posts (and I sure hope at least a couple of you do), here’s the result of my inquiry:
Approaches to Learning
When the children were weeding with me, they showed increased curiosity and were eager to learn new things and have new experiences (Eagerness and Curiosity), attended to tasks for a brief period of time (Persistence), approached a daily activity with creativity and inventiveness (Creativity and Inventiveness), and demonstrated some planning and learning from this experience (Planning and Reflection).
The children were playing in various areas of the garden when I began weeding. Some of the children saw me weeding, approached me and asked what I was doing. When I told them, they asked if they could help. The children joined in and left the activity as they chose. The shortest length of time that some children weeded was five minutes. The average time spent weeding for most volunteers was ten minutes. Two boys worked diligently with me for thirty minutes. The three of us stopped only because it was time to go indoors for snack.
Physical Development
Garden work is great for physical development. The children engaged in a physical activity with increasing balance, coordination, endurance and intensity (Health and Wellbeing); demonstrated the use of large muscles for movement, position, strength and coordination (Motor Development); used perceptual information to guide motions and interactions with objects and other people (Gross Motor Perception); and demonstrated increasing precision, strength, coordination and efficiency with using hand muscles for a functional task (Fine Motor Development).
The children saw the weeds, squatted low by bending at the knees or by bending at the waist, reached out, grasped the weeds and pulled them from the ground with a sufficient amount of force. They put the weeds in a small plastic bucket or the wheelbarrow. They carried the bucket or pushed the wheelbarrow to the garbage can and disposed of the weeds. The children demonstrated their ability to use coordinated movements to achieve a complex task.
Social and Emotional Development
Since more than one child wanted to help and we were using only one wheelbarrow to transport the weeds to the garbage can, cooperation, self-regulation and problem-solving skills were needed to get the job done.
The children expressed and responded to a range of emotions (Emotional Functioning), demonstrated the ability to self-regulate (Managing Emotions), developed increasing ability to engage in social problem-solving (Building and Maintaining Relationships with Adults and Peers), and developed a sense of self-awareness and independence (Sense of Identity and Belonging).
Compromise, negotiation and fair turn-taking – initiated and executed by the children but certainly modelled and facilitated by me – ensured the work was accomplished without tears or shouting or hurt feelings.
Language and Literacy
If you work with young children, you are a language teacher. They are curious. Their curiosity can help them evolve into expert questioners with a little guidance. It all starts with, “What are you doing?” and quickly becomes “Can I help?” They yank one weed from the ground and a flood of memories tumble from their lips. One child remembered being stung by a bee. One girl told about planting flower seeds with her grandfather. A boy explained the butterflies would be hungry because the weeds had flowers and the butterflies needed the flowers.
The children demonstrated understanding when listening, increased their knowledge through listening, and followed directions (Listening and Understanding). They spoke and were understood when speaking (Speaking). They showed an understanding of words and their meanings; and used increasing vocabulary to describe objects, actions and events (Vocabulary). The children used age-appropriate grammar in conversations and used increasingly complex phrases and sentences; and they connected words, phrases and sentences to build ideas (Sentences and Structure). They used verbal and nonverbal communication and language to express needs and feelings, share experiences and resolve problems. Finally, they asked questions, and respond(ed) to adults and peers in a variety of settings and they demonstrated understanding of the social conventions of communication and language use. (Conversation).
Children learn language when we answer their questions and model good listening behaviors. When answering their questions, I introduced and explained new vocabulary. Then, the more I listened, the more they talked. When a new child ambled over and asked, “What are you doing?” I invited one of my helpers to explain what was happening. I rested my preschool teacher over-worked vocal cords and let the children practice their sentence-building and conservation skills.
Mathematical Thinking
The garbage can was quite a distance from the spot we were weeding. I told the children to walk down the sidewalk and put the weeds inside the garbage bin that was just around the corner on the right side. When new children joined the activity, the helpers had to explain to their peers where to dispose of the weeds or show them.
The children described relationships between objects and locations with words and gestures; and used directions to move through space and find places in space (Spatial Relations).
Using real world experiences to teach mathematical concepts is always my preferred method of instruction with elementary school students.
Scientific Inquiry
The children demonstrated knowledge related to living things and their environment (Life Science). They demonstrated awareness of relationship to people, objects and living/non-living things in their environment (Environment). And they showed interest and understanding of how simple tools and machines assist with solving problems (Engineering and Technology).
For some of the volunteer weeders, the roots of the weeds captivated their interest. For others, it was pushing the wheelbarrow. Some children questioned why the weeds weren’t allowed to grow in this location but in other locations in our outdoor learning environment it was allowed. Some children pondered the difference between flowers and weeds. The conversations were light and transient like smoke dissipating from an Autumn campfire. The children questioned, reflected and drew conclusions as easily as raindrops slide off smooth leaves.
Social Studies
The children identified characteristics of self as an individual, identified the ways self is similar to and different from peers and others, and recognized individual responsibility as a member of a group (Individual Development and Identity).
As soon as two preschoolers get within one meter of one another, the comparisons begin. They go back and forth discussing which one of them is stronger, faster, older or taller than the other. “I can pull out more weeds.” “My weed is bigger.” “My weed has more roots.” “I can push the wheelbarrow faster.”
I often hear myself saying, “Everything isn’t a competition.” This time I added, “Right now we are working together to make our learning space look better.”
I’m not recommending that anyone sets out to assess children within so many domains and on so many standards with one learning experience.
The point here is that even a simple outdoor learning activity, such as weeding the garden, can be a vehicle in which the children demonstrate accomplishment of standards and benchmarks within a variety of domains – just pick one. Teachers can take learning outdoors with peace of mind.
The beauty of teaching young children is that they learn something from every experience we provide them. It’s important for us teachers to plan for learning and to have intended learning outcomes for the children all the while remaining open to valuing the unintended learning outcomes that the children find personally meaningful.
For example, I might have chosen the domain, Approaches to Learning, and the related standards and benchmarks to assess the children for this experience. However, when a student demonstrated her skill in mathematical thinking and spatial relations, I could use the example of her description of the location of the garbage can as evidence of her learning for my observational notes or her portfolio. To do this, I must know the standards and benchmarks, be vigilant and take notice of the children’s words and actions.
The better we know our curriculum and the more often we plan our teaching and reflect on the children’s learning, the more confidently we will be able to explain our learning experience choices to ourselves, to parents and to administrators.
