Kindergarten...Where the Wild Things Are

      On Friday, I had the opportunity to visit Sanborn School and spend some time with the students of Mrs Carlson and Mrs Woo's kindergarten classes.  Woodland Animals is one of the science themes for the kindergarden program, so I brought along a selection of animal pelts (fox, beaver, bobcat, skunk, raccoon, otter, coyote) from Andover High School's collection for an afternoon show and tell. Each of the pelts was presented individually along with some information about the animal and few questions and stories from the students.  We talked about how mammals all have hair/fur and how each one has its own special adaptations for its lifestyle.  After the presentation, each student had the opportunity to touch the fur from each of the pelts and experience the differences in texture and color patterns.

Sanborn kindergarten students have close encounters with wild animals

     The visit was an enjoyable learning opportunity for myself as well as the students.  Being an educator whose career has been spent teaching high school and middle school students, the experience of interacting with some of our youngest students renewed my awareness of critically important role that kindergarten and preK teachers play in introducing students to learning in a school environment and facilitating the development of important social and learning behaviors needed in this environment.  It's not too difficult to impress kindergarteners  - they are fascinated by many things as they naturally strive to understand the world around them.  Science is fundamentally just that - the effort to understand the world around us.  The naturally curious minds of kindergartners and other young children ideally position them for developing a capacity to think scientifically about their world.  Kudos to the teachers of our youngest students for the critically important work they do building the foundation on which teachers in later years will continue to build.

Steve Sanborn