I visited Blair at the end of April and worked with the grades 2 & 3 students in Daisy Khare’s class. The students were beginning to learn about plants and we decided it was an ideal time to go outside and look closely at the school’s new garden beds. Some of the other classes’ plantings were growing so well already.

This gave us a great opportunity to discuss looking closely at plants – noticing the colours, the textures, the lines, the shapes, the markings, the size, etc. The students were asked to choose two different plants to observe and notice what was the same and what was different about them. The students enjoyed using magnifying glasses and loupes to really zoom in on the details.

   The students took their science notebooks outside with them and recorded their observations with drawings and words. We left it up to the students how they would do this.

It was interesting to listen in on some of the students’ conversations. Many of them wondered what the plants were exactly and looked for clues (like plant markers with the names on them!) to help them out. They were excited to see bright red radishes bulging up through the soil. One student noticed the tendrils on the pea plants and wondered what they were for.

This led to other questions from the students and they began recording their questions in their notebooks alongside their observations.

We came back inside for students to focus on the recording of their experience in their science notebooks. It was impressive to see the variety of formats the students chose to show their learning.

This experience for the students was connected to the primary teachers’ professional collaborative inquiry looking at taking science outdoors and making students’ learning visible through science notebooking.

~Janice