By Mark Mabry, Head Teacher, with Mischa Rosenberg, Teacher
One of the most compelling parts of Bing’s classroom environment for young children is the continuous availability of our natural outdoor spaces. Bing’s founding director, Dr. Edith Dowley, wanted to ensure that children would have constant access to the outdoors, and Bing has equipped each nursery room with its own half-acre of rolling hills, lush grass, flowers in perennial bloom, and deciduous and evergreen trees that form a beautiful canopy over their alfresco play spaces. The always-open doors and tall windows in the classrooms beckon children to explore the natural world that awaits them outside. The children eagerly respond to the invitation and embrace rolling down hills; climbing trees; incorporating flowers, falling leaves, blossoms, and seedpods into their cooking play; and having the freedom to run and explore. Often we observe our young students simply lying in the grass, taking the time to stare up at the sky.
In addition to the flora available to children in our yards, there are opportunities for them to interact with the fauna that inhabit these spaces. On rainy days, children are fascinated with the earthworms emerging from their flooded tunnels. They also enjoy upending stumps, peeking under stones, and digging into soil to discover a plethora of tiny creatures: pill bugs, grubs, earwigs, millipedes, and more. Squirrels are often seen dashing through the yards and scampering up the tall redwoods; we even had a pocket gopher make repeated pop-up appearances out of its tunnel this year. Most of the creatures children notice tend to be at ground level, and they often miss those living above their line of vision.
We have been fortunate to have a teacher in Center PM who has brought her passion for “looking up” to our classroom. Mischa Rosenberg is an avid bird-watcher and avian enthusiast who enhanced her already formidable knowledge about our flying friends by attending what she affectionately refers to as “bird camp” last summer at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York. Having a teacher who is excited and knowledgeable about a topic—and being in a perfect “laboratory” to share her interest—inspires children, teachers, and parents.
Mischa started by putting together a chart of indigenous birds, some birding reference books, and binoculars. With her tools assembled, she offered an activity in Center Room’s Redwood Grove to any children who might be interested. There were a few children who were immediately engaged and enchanted by the prospect. They were eager to identify the various birds, learn their names, and try to spot them as they made their way from branch to branch, climbing up tree trunks, or flitting and foraging on the ground. Their enthusiasm proved contagious, and soon more children were poring over the charts and trying to catch glimpses of our feathered companions.
As interest in birding in our classroom spread, so did the ways in which children paid attention to the environment around them. They became attuned to looking up at tree branches to spot birds, and grew excited when they noticed them alighting on the ground. Children were now not only looking for birds but also becoming more alert to hearing birdsong as a clue to their presence.
We often offer “scavenger hunts” in our grove, where children have a list of items to find hidden among the trees, gardens, and structures—usually laminated photos or illustrations affixed with tape. With our growing birding interest, we were able to design hunts involving the actual birds that inhabit our little forest. Children also became adept at knowing the names of the different species they encountered: juncos, titmice, nuthatches, etc.
Mischa offered the children additional resources to enhance their growing fascination with our avian community. She shared illustrated birding fact cards, a digital book of audio birdsongs, and pairs of binoculars, as well as her own extensive birding knowledge. When children wanted to know more about a bird they had spotted or some interesting behavior they had noticed, they would declare, “Let’s go ask Mischa!”
We also saw children spontaneously incorporate their interest in our neighborhood birds into their play. Nest-building with natural materials such as pine needles, leaves, and fallen branches as well as recycled materials from our design table became a favorite activity. We had introduced a few songs during story time that feature birds, and children would spontaneously sing these while playing among the redwoods. They would also pause their play to report to a teacher or inform their friends that they had heard a crow cawing, or noticed a junco hopping along the ground adjacent to where they were playing. Indeed, the birds of Center Room had become part of our classroom community.
One of the most fascinating additions to our classroom was a suet feeder placed on the trunk of a mulberry tree near our patio. Many birds wanted to partake of this feast, and children were delighted to see the variety of species that stopped for a snack. Mark Mabry, a teacher who grew up in the Midwest, recalled fondly that when he was a boy, his family would hang suet on trees and watch for chickadees to approach. To his surprise, Mischa pointed out that chickadees are in fact one of our local birds, and if Mark kept watching, he’d see them alight on the feeder!
Unfortunately, our opportunistic squirrels were also drawn to the suet feeder, much to our indignation. In an effort to thwart the furry thieves’ efforts, Mischa and the children at her snack table brainstormed ways to deter the squirrels, including battling them with light sabers, making the suet spicy, and practicing their scariest faces. However, it was our unexpected but welcome winter rainstorms that finally kept the squirrels from raiding the suet feeder. It turned out that our birds were undaunted by the showers, whereas the squirrels retreated far up into the redwoods to noisily complain about the weather.
Throughout the year, our exploration of our feathered neighbors has been a rich experience in paying much closer attention to the natural world surrounding us and helped us feel a kinship and empathy with the creatures that share our play space. The children at Bing Nursery School have been gifted with an expansive outdoor environment that not only allows them daily opportunities to run, jump, and cavort outside, but also affords them a stronger connection to and appreciation for the beautiful sights and sounds of the lives all around us.