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Hi, I am a student teacher in my first year of student teaching in a kindergarten classroom. I have a science lesson that I would like to do discussing the differences between living and nonliving. I would like to take my students outside to do a nature walk so they can get visuals of everyday living/nonliving things. What is the best way to do this? Should I ask students to record what they see or should I just walk them through what is living and what is nonliving. I dont want them to get distracted by other things and forget what our true purpose is for the nature walk.

Thank you for reading and responding!

Hi Marissa, I am one year away from student teaching myself! A suggestion that I have for your nature walk would be the students have to record one thing that they noticed from the nature walk. I feel like have a small amount that they have to record will help them stay focused but also be able to enjoy the nature walk. I hope you find this to be of some help and good luck with your lesson.

Abby McKee

Wartburg College 2020

Elementary Education Major

Reading, Special Education, and ESL endorsements

Hi Marissa,

I agree that one way you can go about this is providing students with a graphic organizer including pictures. Before going on the nature walk, I would review or have a teachable moment where they learn converse about characteristics living and non-living things have. You could also find an age appropriate video explaining living and non-living things. This can be student led, but teacher facilitated. It is important for students to engage in inquiry in order to enhance learning. SInce the students are in Kindegarten, one way you can adapt this organizer is by having the students write 'L' for living and 'N' for non-living. This has student practicing their letters. If you are doing a 5E lesson format, I think this would be a great little engage activity to get students thinking about living and non-living things. From there, I would further your investigations by reading books to integrate literature within the lesson and by doing further research through games online or apps.

I hope this helps get ideas flowing. Good luck with your lesson!