Walls and Nature as Learning Spaces

In most schools, we see that teaching and learning is usually restricted to classroom teaching. Teachers are not aware that the school’s processes and the entire school’s surroundings can be used for learning. It is important to make them realize the importance and effectiveness of nonclassroom spaces and the related processes to make children’s learning meaningful and joyful.

Though we spend significant years of our life in schools, the skills gathered are limited. The teaching in schools need not be restricted only to cover the given learning outcomes. Schools must become the most important source of learning. Teachers should continuously look for ways and mediums to maximize children’s learning opportunities.

Our Work

Along with our work with teaching and learning processes in classrooms, we at Azim Premji Foundation (APF) also work with teachers of government schools to create awareness on the use of school processes and schools’ surroundings for meaningful learning.

Here, I will talk about a few of our attempts to use schools’ surroundings in the learning process of class 1 to 7 students and the effects on children’s learning.

Walls: An Excellent Space for Learning outside the Classroom

We put white chart papers on the outside walls of the school in places that are frequently used by all students to write Kannada words. This was done at heights reachable to all students. We asked them to write simple words containing a specific letter that generally children across grades find difficult, e.g., words with Anuswara, a few Kaagunitha and Ottakshara. These words could include names of their favorite fruits, trees, vegetables, etc.

We also asked children to write a few words or sentences about a displayed picture. Children wrote whatever they knew or felt like in their own way. We did not point out their mistakes. We changed these posters once in 10 to 14 days.

These activities serve the following objectives. They encourage free and independent writing. In contrast, classroom writings usually involves copy writing of words and lessons from textbooks. As children discuss among themselves while writing, they learn from one another, and they also teach others. They will slowly understand that writing is used to express themselves, to communicate their ideas. This will help in self-evaluating their mistakes and learning levels. Through this process they also gain the understanding that writing is fun.

These activities serve as informal assessment of children’s language learning levels for teachers. They indicate areas and concepts that children find difficult or have not fully learnt. Hence, these help teachers identify areas to focus on and to plan activities to improve children’s learning.

We made posters related to trees, plants, leaves, birds’ nests, animals, riddles and fill-in-the-blank questions. Children solve the riddles using pictures or drawings of the posters and write answers on the posters. These activities encourage children to think. They also learn something new about plants and animals.

We have put posters of simple, small Kannada songs with rhyming words for children to read. Rhyming words include slightly difficult ones. The selected poems are related to children’s daily lives. For example, these may have grandmothers, schools or some famous snacks, etc. as their themes.

These activities help to achieve the following objectives. They help in learning the pronunciation of letters that need special emphasis, which we generally ignore while talking. Difficult words (like Ottakshara) can be easily taught and learnt through rhyming words. They also help to carry out informal assessment of pronunciation of letters and in language familiarization.

We also used posters on difficult concepts like directions. We found that many children are unable to name the direction if you point towards a specific direction. As we observed, generally direction is taught without using the sun as a reference.

We pictorially represented how directions can be easily identified by using the sun as a reference and aligning their right side to the sun. We included fill-in-the-blank questions in the posters to understand children’s learning. In this way posters can be used to teach difficult concepts across grades.

We used posters of trees in the school campus and other trees around them as well. We prepared posters of trees in the campus and a few common trees to help children identify the trees and remember their names.

Learning from Nature

Nature is the best teacher. It teaches us to be curious, to wonder, to observe, to think, to question, to seek answers, to hypothesize, to infer, to be amazed, and more importantly, to be peaceful and happy, and to learn with joy. We carried out many nature related activities to nurture children’s curiosity towards nature.

Nature walks, identification of trees and collection of seeds and fruits: We took children for walks in and around the school and identified trees in the campus and 50 trees and plants around the school. We collected seeds and dried fruits. Children also collected seeds and fruits from their houses. We discussed the characteristics of fruits and seeds and how these help in their dispersal through different modes. We labeled the collected samples with their common names and displayed the collection in the science lab. Presently we have seeds and fruits collected from ~35 trees and plants.

Observing trees: Children regularly observed trees of their campus and noted down details of phenology (timing of shedding of leaves, emergence of new leaves, flowering and fruiting) and biodiversity in and around trees. They drew diagrams of leaves, flowers, fruits and trees. They depicted length of leaves and flowers using bar graphs. We measured height and diameter (at breast height) of all the trees.

Butterflies of the school: With children we identified nine species of butterflies and four butterfly host plants in the school campus. We made a poster using a dried branch of the Mussaenda plant. It is a host plant of Commander Butterfly. Children drew diagrams of Commander Butterfly to include in the poster.

Butterfly and moth life cycle observation: We collected caterpillars of Common Castor Butterfly from castor plants and caterpillars of Oleander hawk-moth from Vinca rosea plants. Children reared these caterpillars in a carboard box and observed adults emerging from pupae.

Mosquito life cycle observation: We collected water samples with mosquitoes’ larvae and showed different developmental stages of larvae and pupae of mosquitoes to children. Children illustrated the life cycle through observations under the dissection microscope.

Posters of leaves, flowers, roots: We collected samples of leaves, flowers, roots and plants during nature walks. We dried these samples and with children’s help we made posters. We have made posters on different types of leaves, roots, flowers and dependence of insects on plants. We also wanted the children to have a few interesting observations like leaves (with semicircular parts missing) cut by leaf-cutting bees, and fruits like peanuts that grow underground, etc. Some of these posters also help to recall and remember already learnt concepts.

Students’ Voices

Anitha, Class 6: “We did not know that so many kinds of trees existed. We did not know anything about trees. We learnt about them through these activities only.”

Swathi, Class 6: “We feel like doing these activities all the time.”

Reepu and Raksha, Class 4: “We want to do more of Season Watch activities.”

Poornima, Class 6: “There is a tree with yellow flowers close to my house. It could be the Golden Shower tree we saw during our nature walk”

Keerthana, Class 3: “There is a big green caterpillar on a tree next to my house. Please come to my home. I will show you the caterpillar.” After a week: “I saw a black and green butterfly emerging from the caterpillar. It sat on the leaf for a long time. It was wet. There was water in its covering.” The author went to Keerthana’s home to check the butterfly that evening. There was a torn pupal case on a leaf of a Madras Ashoka tree. With her explanations and the host plant, the butterfly was identified as a Tailed Jay.

Anitha Class 6: “I will draw diagrams of clocks showing different times to put on the wall for everyone to learn.”

Dhanalakshmi and Sinchana, Class 7: “We observed an insect on a creeper plant. But we do not know what it is. You check and tell us its name.”

Benefits of Nature Education through Activity Based Learning outside the Classroom

Through these nature education activities conducted outside the classroom, we have seen children ask questions about things they observed in their surroundings. Children spend their free time reading, writing or observing the collected material. They have prepared small posters and asked me to display on the wall.

Children across grades collected flowers, seeds, dead insects, feathers, shells, lizards’ eggshells and birds’ nests to add to our collection. They even collected samples from their native places during their visits.

Children collected the empty, molted exoskeleton of an insect from the bark of Indian Cork tree of the school. They spotted caterpillars of Oleander hawk-moth in the Vinca rosea plants. Teachers gave us ideas and suggestions to make posters related to concepts of language. A science teacher collected an old nest of weaver ants to display in the science lab.

A student of class 6 collected seeds of Fever Nut plant when she went to fetch firewood. Their class teacher helped us to identify the plant, as this species was found in her native village. Thus, through these activities we can achieve the following objectives. We can get children interested in nature. By knowing about plants and animals living around them, and how everything is interconnected in nature, children will develop love and respect for nature and all living beings. Children will understand that science is the study of nature and the study of its various phenomena. We can develop observation, thinking, questioning, data collection, classification, analyzation, illustration and independent writing skills in children. For children to understand the daily life application of mathematics, it can be integrated into many of these activities.

We can connect learning of the school to children’s daily life experiences. Children become active participants in the learning process. They generate knowledge by themselves and hence learn better. These activities help to clarify children’s doubts and reinforce learning of concepts taught by teachers. Active participation and working with friends ensure their happiness and well-being. They learn to work with friends, to share, to help and to seek help from friends. They provide ideas for teachers to incorporate into their teaching.

In Conclusion

As teachers see children enjoying being part of these activities, and spending time reading the posters, they have slowly realized the merits of such learning spaces. Any knowledge gathered through meaningful and joyful ways will always stay with the children throughout their lives. Such experiences make them happy, and encourage them to continue education. These also have significant positive effects on their future career choices. Let’s try to make children’s learning a memorable experience that they cherish throughout their lives, by including more of these learning activities outside the classroom.