Outdoor Education - 1st Grade Style!

Last week all three first grade classes went to the Environmental Nature Center in Newport Beach for a learning experience called Eco Explorers. The children traveled with a naturalist and parent volunteers to various locations within natural settings to learn about ways seeds travel and adaptions animals have to help them survive in their habitats.  The activities were very hands-on! The students were able to dress up as different animals and discussed why that creature needed to live in a certain environment. They were given tiny seeds and were able to scatter them in a spot that had all the essentials they’d learned that plants need in order to grow. The experience also delighted the children’s sense of fun, as they were given time to jump over a creek, climb on rocks, look at tadpoles in the water and just enjoy exploring an outdoor environment. They were asked to think about animal adaptions and creatively imagine how an adaptation might be used to create an invention to help people. They were able to illustrate and share their ideas within their groups. All in all, it was an awesome time of learning and growing together in a very beautiful outdoor setting. By: Mrs. Cook, 1st grade