Living things grow and change. Futuro Verde first and second graders are seeing that first-hand through our new addition…the chickens. We started out with just two hens in hopes that we could see the whole life cycle over time. Now, with support of Futuro Verde staff, the environmental education program, and high school students, we have been able to create a larger, safer area for more chickens. The first and second graders get to visit the ten chickens, a mix of ages and types, including a rooster, and two little chicks several times a week.
According to Mark Ritchie, Ph.D., the Executive Director of the International Development Studies Institute, ¨Experiential learning — learning by doing with reflection — presents the educator with a tool that can both engage the learner with complicated material, and help illustrate the complexity of real world ecological and human systems.¨ This is exactly what I am seeing in our students – engagement paired with learning complicated science standards! Usually, the first question of the day is “when do we get to see the chickens?!”
The students are responsible for providing fresh water, leftover food from the kitchen, and cracked corn for the chickens. We are learning what items they like best through observation. The students are also learning how to safely handle the chickens by staying calm and waiting for the chickens to approach them – patience is often a difficult feat for such young children but they are succeeding! Through observation and reflection, we are looking at body parts and their functions, patterns of behavior, inheritance of traits, the stages of development within the life cycle and applying critical thinking skills. These are complicated topics for six to eight-year-olds, but when using the basic steps of experiential learning: Act, Reflect, Reframe and Apply, the students are able to grasp these concepts and problem solve any issues that might arise with the chickens. Beyond the science standards, the language development that comes from this hands-on experience is amazing – vocabulary development which begins orally in the interactions with the chickens to written application in their journal reflections.
If you run into a Futuro Verde first or second grade student, ask about the chickens…I am sure they will have a lot to talk about!