Summer is when green blooms on the trees

How do you invite young children into knowing their relationship to the natural world? How do you invite them into inquiry that begins to support them to think like scientists? How do you support them to realize the theories they invent as they explore and make meaning of the world? How do we support and sustain curiosity?

Kimie surprised the children this week by telling them that someone had left a gift for them in the classroom: sunflowers and a copy of the book "Summertime" — an illustrated version of the famous song from Porgy and Bess. They sang the song and wondered together: What is summertime?

Summer is when the leaves bloom green on the trees.

Is there summer in that green? What is happening to the green now? Can we capture it before it is gone?

Kimie brought samples from her garden and invited the children to share their thoughts and observations about what was happening to her plants.

The group headed out for a hike to the "House of Summer" in Hoyt Arboretum to see what they could find and to begin to think about ways they might capture those greens before they are gone. 

And begin to anticipate what's to come…

The painter Marc Chagall once said, "Art begins where nature ends." We look forward to finding out in what ways the children will choose to express their experiences and their interpretations of the greens of summer and the change of season.