Outdoor Stations-Insect Inquiry

 The post is a documentation of my first adventure in outdoor learning stations!  The materials at each station are adjusted after each child has learned at that station at least once.  Right now kids spend about 10-15 minutes per station.  I planned for 4 kids at each station at a time so there is plenty of space and materials for everyone.  Right now I am assigning the groups rather than letting kids pick. (We've had some issues with excluding others) I was able to try with half my class first so I could work out any kinks before trying this type of learning with the whole class!  Here are the stations I tried today: all related to our insect unit.  I plan to keep the main title/purpose of the stations the same but switch the content based on our inquiry topic.  I also plan to add provocation question soon so that there is a true sense of inquiry learning.

Reading station:  This station had books selected for our insect topic.  Student were encouraged to read and share what they found with each other.  This helped generate interest in the books and stronger readers were able to help out readers needing support.

Explore/Build station: The goal was to build an insect with all its body parts by using a spinner type game.   Silliness brought to you by the makers of Cootie!

Using wooden blocks, glass stones and pinecones to create insects with 3 body parts, 6 legs and antenna

Create Station:  I put together vibrant, up close photos of different insects.  Students were invited to draw.  I plan to add painting and sculpting to this station so each day features a different medium.

After drawing based on photos, we moved to water color.  This is the first time in my over 20 year career that I allowed kids to use permanent markers to create their own outlines.  Fortunately our art teacher has already taught them proper care and use of these markers.  I was pretty nervous about it but they did a great job and made amazing pictures!

Look closer station: We used magnifying glasses to observe and record our mystery creatures (Ladybug and Painted Lady Butterfly larva/pupa) and look closer at models of their life cycles as well as other insects.

This is an upcycled paper journal with life cycle labels and illustrations.  I believe the kids learn more by creating their own text book and illustrations that cutting and pasting a worksheet.

I added field guides to the look closer station.  The kids became very interested in the different species and trying to find insects they had seen in the past.  These were also offered during our nature explore time and became a popular resource.

We experimented with putting a hollowed out potato in the sun and in the shade to see if we could catch any creatures.  Unfortunately, squirrels got to the potatoes and we determined the experiment a failure.  Good thing we have a growth mindset!

Setting up our potato bug catcher in the shade.