It’s one thing to learn about insects while sitting at your desk in kindergarten. But as the kindergarten students at BrightPath Active Learning in Westerville, OH, will tell you, the information sticks a lot better if you are running around pretending to be the insects, or if your sing about them or rip them out of paper.
This fall, the kindergarten class celebrated “Bug Week” and learned the difference between a bug (general term) and insect (six-legs, three body sections, etc.).
“As a teacher, it was surprising how well a song taught them something and they learned it,” said Coral Owdom, Director of Education at BrightPath. “The song had some hard vocabulary in it and they really got it.”
“We practiced it everyday. They know exoskeleton, head, thorax, abdomen.”
The words, abstract at first, quickly became real when the students were able to see a real exoskeleton, thanks to the school’s Naturalist, Colleen Sharkey.
“We had an exoskeleton of a cicada that Colleen found, and we brought it in under the magnifying glass,” Owdom said.
The art activity associated with bug week truly pushed the children to the edge of their comfort level.
At a typical school, a teacher will make an art project to show the children what they are trying to create. At BrightPath, Art Specialist Michelle Bonnette strives to allow the students’ creativity to blossom by avoiding giving them too many models to follow, especially when it comes to art.
The BrightPath kindergarten students were asked to make bugs out of paper and pipe cleaners and glue. Not only were they not shown an example, they also weren’t allowed to use scissors!
Tearing the paper increases finger dexterity, which is a skill needed for writing.
“It was frustrating that they weren’t allowed to use scissors,” Owdom said. “But once they got going, they got into it.”
To the teachers’ surprise, the students immediately began tearing heads, thoraxes and abdomens. Even without a model or example, they were creating insects according to what they had learned about them. They all had the insects’ legs correctly protruding from the thorax.
In addition to creating their works of art, the students are expected to stand in front of the group and give a brief presentation about their project. This is not only good preparation for public speaking, it also makes the students more likely to answer questions during class in their regular Westerville kindergarten class.
In another activity, students learned about the different kinds of bees, and the role each plays in the hive. Students took turns using different antennae and playing the role of nurse bees, larva, drone bees, robber bees and queen bee.
For such an active game, the wooded grounds outside the school were perfect.
“You could do something like that in a gym,” said Owdom, who taught at a traditional grade school before coming to BrightPath. “You would not get the same sense that you do outside.”
Owdom said the school environment also made it easy to reinforce the lessons, and to cement abstract concepts in reality.
“We learned about pollination, which most kids do. But here there are all kinds of flowers outside with bees in them all the time, a few feet away.”
