Learning to be Naturalists

In Grade 3 students have been working on taking notes based on careful observations and measurements.   During the month of September the students are practicing making accurate measurements of length using the metric units of centimeters and meters.  That includes measuring the height of each child in the class and measuring other interesting objects and animals around the science room. 

 But, careful observations are also central to scientific understanding.  As part of our science lessons we have been making weather and nature observations in the courtyard area adjacent to the Grade 3 classrooms.  After making the first set of observations we read a book about the observations that one child might make in visiting one location in the neighborhood over the course of several months.  

My Nature Notebook

My Nature Notebook shows how a small spot on the forest floor, where things grow, die, and decompose, changes over several months, and what a child's notebook recording those changes looks like. This book demonstrates the importance of careful and repeated observations, and of measurements, drawings, and detailed notes, in making good inferences about the nature and cause of changes. My Nature Notebook models careful observation and note taking, and also provides students with experience reading tables, and making inferences.

Through out the year, Grade 3 students will be heading outside to make observations through the changing seasons.   Recording observations is the foundation for learning about the natural world and all the students have chosen a small spot in the Lower School courtyard area to observe.  After just two visits they are already noticing many changes and noticing things that they had never realized were just outside their door before.