Children growing up in Singapore are used to seeing new construction sites pop up around the city. While this change in our environment can be exciting and certainly has a purpose, it often means destruction to the natural environment. This year, the Early Years children have been very observant about the construction site across from our school and the resulting changes.
In an effort to reconnect the children to our natural environment – as well as make connections between nature and the written and taught curriculum – the Early Years teachers proposed a long-term project to the children, which would see them engaging in different ways with the big banyan tree on our school grounds. K1 and K2 classes all participated in different ways, following student suggestions and pursuing planned connections to class inquiries. |
In Kindergarten 1.2, we have photographed the tree from different viewpoints, practiced our gross motor skills by balancing on the roots, and drew and wrote what we saw and noticed. We used the photographs of the tree to create a clay representation of the tree, which we added animals and other items to. This inspired us to create a story about the tree, which we wrote under the tree so we could continue to be inspired by it. We continued our storytelling with the tree through our play in the classroom.
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