The Collection-Learning Connection

Collections begin with curiosity, an interest in something. Questions. Wonder. Excitement.

Children, being natural scientists, are inquisitive, intrigued by discovery, inviting more questions. In the process, they often begin collecting objects that excite them, making comparisons and continuing experiments, learning always—counting, sorting, comparing, and drawing conclusions based on the discoveries made with their collections. Providing space for their collections and discovery is essential to their growth and development while also providing them with a sense of responsibility for their “belongings”.

Over the past several weeks, we’ve been collecting leaves and rocks; large and small, different hues, unique characteristics. Providing bins for the collections kept items organized and “ready” for exploring and continued discovery. Along the way, I pulled a few field guides from our library shelves, accessible for identification and deeper learning. Our science discovery area grew as a result, leading to more questions. Curiosity, an interest in something, was the catalyst.

What interests your children? The petal patterns in flowers. Shapes of shells. Maybe which car in the bin moves faster down the plywood ramp. Step back and ponder the learning taking place. It matters and it will be remembered.

Common collection items

Pinecones

Marbles

Toy cars

Legos

Rocks

Acorns

Leaves

Shells

Insects

Pennies

Collections can be used as catalysts to studies in other content area.

Collections to science discovery centers

Our science discovery center (a small table near a window sill where light can shower any growing seeds and plants) expands every time a collection begins. The center is simple, yet offers great space for curiosity to grow. Adding our Magiscope and a magnifying glass foster that growth. Intentional and real.

If you are wondering about the nitty-gritty of setting up a science center, Cheryl discusses several ideas in her book Cultivating Curiosity.

What interests are growing in your children?

A collection of stamps given by a grandparent? A pile of rocks? A selection of leaves from a recent walk?

Oh, the possibilities! They will be engaged and learning.

How to Create Your Own Timeline

I remember one season of our home education journey when everyone—preschool to high school—studied American History. I intentionally planned for the year, knowing our days with five learners our would be full and there would be lots of excitement buzzing about the home. Having everyone study American history on his or her level helped simplify our home learning.

“Timelines help children place people and events in history. They are a concrete visual of often abstract concepts. ”

In one particular part of that year, we were all digging into the American Revolution. Some enjoyed learning about George Washington while others wanted to act out the Boston Tea Party. The resulting conversations became engaging as siblings shared what was being read in biographies, heard on Liberty Kids, or gained from audio materials like Drive Through History. In addition, every learner had a different angle or perspective on the men, women, and events of the time. To tie everyone’s study together, we created a family timeline; an activity that could involve everyone.

“We’ve made several timelines over our 26 years of home education. Every one was unique, every one different based on our study of the time. ”

Our hallway timeline. When I want our timeline to be accessible, in sight and readily available at any given time—like a world map or globe—it extends the length of our hallway at a child’s eye level. To create this timeline, I pulled a stack of sentence strips from my supplies. Had I not had them leftover from a sentence-building exercise, I would have used four-inch strips of card stock or poster board. I taped the strips down one side of the hall and up the other; end-to-end the length of the hallway. Once hung, I used a permanent marker to write dates in fifty year increments, beginning with 1200 (1200, 1250, 1300, 1350 and so on). If you choose to this DIY project, you can easily adjust the dates for the length of your hallway, with the extent of your study in mind.

With several children adding to the timeline, there’s been times when all eyes were on the hall wall, times when siblings were interested in what others were placing on the wall. Our children are curious about the people or events they were studying but also interested in what they siblings were learning. Questions were asked. Siblings answered. Sometimes they enlisted my help. I love watching the process, observing their thinking and problem solving, their summations of what had been learned.

Our file folder timeline. One year I wasn’t quite ready to add tape to the freshly painted hall wall. I had to come up with another option. An abundance of file folders from cleaning out our old metal file cabinets provided us with instant cardstock. I cut the folders in half and glued them together so they would folded, accordian-style. Once folded, the timeline could be stored on a bookshelf. When a learner wanted to add a picture, he or she pulled out the timeline. This version saved my walls, but it didn’t create the same buzz as having the timeline out, front and center, to stop in front of and ponder.

Adding Pictures

The fun part of creating a timeline is adding the pictures. Children love to cut and paste. For the pictures, we use the index of old textbooks (discarded by my history teaching hubby) to locate needed pictures. For example, if a learner is searching for a picture of Alexander Graham Bell, I teach (or review with) him or her to use the index, which requires alphabetization (as study skill). We head to the “B’s” and the move to the “BE” words, and so on. Once we locate the page where Alexander Graham Bell is featured, we cut out any pictures. We follow the same procedure for any person or event studied. Cut out pictures are added to the timeline. If we can’t find a picture, we find a picture on the internet and print it.

Learning is fueled by excitement and engagement. Our timelines add to the engagement, especially the hallway timeline. And, I love that it was accessible. Anytime children walk down the hallway, they’re re-engaged and make observations (“Wow, so many things happened in 1776!”). Timelines offer constant review and consistent reinforcement. And, in those seasons when I have had to repaint the hallway, I smiled as I remembered the discussions which had taken place in that space. We learned history, but we also learned together.

Every. Moment. Matters.

Ant Study

Our ants arrived!

It felt like Christmas complete with shouts of hooray and looks of wonder. 

"Look at them move!"

"How will we get them out of the tube?"

"Let's read the directions!"

Questions. Comments. Ideas. 

Just a week before the ants arrived, we found the ant farm on clearance. Thrilled, the children marveled at the box as I I reminisced about the ant farm my older children experienced years prior. In fact, I had been praying I would find an ant habitat for study.  

Ant farms make learning come alive. 

In the process of getting the habitat set up and becoming acquainted with our new little friends, science intertwined with oral reading (reading the instructions and ant information), reading comprehension (following directions), math (setting a timer to measure duration and measuring water amount), as well as an experiential lesson in patience.

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“Put the ants in the refrigerator for ten minutes.”

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So much learning in a tiny vial of ants. 

Ants in the fridge, we watched as the timer counted down. When 10 appeared on the screen, we all instinctively began counting down.  10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, , 3, 2, 1...

"ZERO! Get the ants!"

"Look at them! They are still."

"They must be sleeping. Time to take them out and put them in!"

Then I worked fast. (Hint: Ants wake up FAST! Be ready to move quickly.)

Once in their new home, the ants got to work. My children were enthralled. 

The children sat, watching progress, for at least thirty minutes. As they observed, they asked questions. 

• Is that ant dead or sleeping? 
• What is that ant doing with the sand?
• Why are they piling the sand at the top? 
• Why do they crawl over one another? 
• I wonder what they will do while we are sleeping? 
• Did that ant die already?
• Do we have a queen? 
• What does a queen look like? 

Our ant study was just beginning! 

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Extended ant learning study for all ages

Read a good book. Experiences help children understand written material and fuel further learning. If a child becomes interested in a topic, place books related to the interest in the home: on end tables, night stands, or book shelves. If a study pops up spontaneously, plan a visit to the library and help the learner find the section containing books about the interest. Some of the ant books we read:

   Fiction

• One Hundred Hungry Ants, Elinor J. Pinczes
• The Ant and the Grasshopper, Amy Lowry Poole

   Non-fiction

• Are You an Ant, Judy Allen
• Ant Cities, Arthur Dorros
• The Life and Times of the Ant, Charles Micucci

Observe ants in their natural habitat. Take learning outdoors. Look for ants. Spend time watching their activities. Take pictures and make your own ant study book or journal. 

Make a sketch. Sketching integrates another learning modality into the experience. In an ant study, learners can go outside and observe real ants, sketching what they see. This will likely lead to wanting to know more about ant anatomy and environments. Add your sketch to your ant study journal. 

Learn and label body parts. Watching the ants made my children curious about the ant's body. From their questions, we researched and learned ant anatomy, drawing and labeling each major part (head, thorax, abdomen) as well as the more specific parts (mandible, antennae, compound eye, legs). Enchanted Learning offers a diagram of the anatomy and ant information.Life Studies site has a page devoted to ant study. Another great addition to an ant study journal. 

Study the lifecycle. Every living creature has a lifecycle. Ants are no different. In fact, one of my children asked if there were eggs in the vial. Enchanted Learning helped us here, too. 

Take a closer look. Magnifying glasses are great tools for looking at live ants. However, the Magiscope is a great way to take an even closer look. Do so with a few dead ants. Otherwise, you may get stung or they may crawl away from the stage. 

Have an older learner, perhaps middle and high schooler? Research myrmecology and entomology. How are these branches of science related? Who are the leading scientists in these areas and what contributions did they make to the field? How did their works impact science and the general population? If opportunities are available--perhaps through a local pest control service, zoo, or college campus--consider interviewing a myrmecologist or entomologist. We discovered how one scientist is studying ants and bees. 

Helpful sites

Arizona State University School of Life Science, Ask a Biologist page. 

Harvard Forest

Life Studies

We bought our ants through Life Studies

Ready to learn about ants? The process can be one of the most rewarding and remembered events of childhood learning. If you decide to introduce learners to this amazing creature, tell us about your experiences, or leave helpful resources your found, in the comments. 

Porch Science

In my recent FPEA workshop, I was speaking to parents about science little learners love. In the course of our time together, I mentioned the amazing wonders we had flourishing on the front porch, most of for which I cannot take any credit. The marvels were the treasures of my children, their purchases, their discoveries, their experiments. Indeed, my learners have gathered quite a menagerie and it is fun to watch them take responsibility for their projects. 

I told attendees I give them a sneak peek of our porch projects when we returned home. 

These are the science wonders little learners love! 

Rooting project. A friend blessed my budding gardener with some clippings from her favorite plants. My daughter listened as my friend explained how she rooted her plants and how some of the plants went to seed. Clippings in hand, my learner dreamed of the garden which might spring forth from the cuttings. Expectation was rooted in intrinsic interest. Since that day, my daughter has cared for the plants, watering them every day, each day growing fonder of her project. Today we have good sized plants which are transplant ready.

Our favorite planting books:

The Carrot Seed, Ruth Krauss

Tops and Bottoms, Janet Stevens

Grasshoppers. Likely you can't see them in this picture, but I promise they're there. Big eastern lubber grasshoppers, romalea microptera, find their path to our porch. Their appearance prompted curiosity and independent research. Those grasshoppers, as destructive as they can be, are incredible creatures. When we found a dead grasshopper, we placed it on the stage of our Magiscope to take a closer look. Fascinating! 

Our favorite insect and wiggly wonders books: 

Are You A Grasshopper?, Judy Allen

Ant Cities, Arthur Dorros

The Ant and the Grasshopper, Amy Lowry Poole

Flowers. The day before we left for the FPEA convention we made a clever discovery at a local garden shop--$1.00 plants! We purchased a few plants to bring beauty to our booth and now those plants have found a home on the porch until they are transplanted. In the meantime, these flowers attract butterflies and learners notice differences in petals and leaves. In addition, each day an eager little learner heads out to the porch with a spray bottle to water the flowers. Another means by which to foster responsibility. 

Our favorite books about blooms: 

The Tiny Seed, Eric Carle

Planting a Rainbow, Lois Ehlert

Sprouts. Several weeks before convention my little learners were on a "grow everything you can" frenzy. We grew beans in a baggie and beans and marigolds on peat pods. A few days later, an older learner researched how to harvest snap dragon seeds which she eventually harvested from a plant she had purchased on a clearance rack. Those seeds sprouted, too! Our porch began to be a haven of color, beckoning learners to stop every time they passed in or out the front door. 

Our favorite books about sprouting wonders: 

From Seed to Plant, Gail Gibbons

How a Seed Grows, Helene J. Jordan

Stems and Roots, David M. Schwartz

Tadpoles. Friends--bless them--gave us a container FULL of tadpoles! What an amazing wonder! Our littlest learner sat and watched and watched, marveling. Our tadpoles are still young--no legs yet--but every day we observe, hoping to see some soon! I know this will launch questions and even more discovery! 

Our favorite frog books: 

Frogs, Gail Gibbons

Frogs and Polliwogs, Dorothy Childs Hogner (pictured below)

From Tadpole to Frog, Wendy Pfeffer

Other things we have had on the porch in the past: 

Rocks. Children love rocks, especially ones they find on their own (digging them out is a bonus, too)! 

Our favorite reads about rocks: 

Pocket Genius: Rocks and Minerals, DK

Shells. Summertime trips to the beach bring shells! Not only is it fun to discover what animals live in shells, but shells make great items for counting, adding, or writing letters and numbers in the sand. 

Our favorite shell books: 

A House for Hermit Crab, Eric Carle

Sea Shells, Crabs, and Sea Stars, Christiane Kump Tibbitts

What Lives in A Shell?, Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

Abandon Hives. No bees, we made sure! What a wonder these creations are! Once we knew the hive as safe, it fueled further learning. One hive = many days of questions. 

Our favorite bee books: 

The Honey Makers, Gail Gibbons

The Life and Times of the Bee, Charles Micucci

What wonders have landed on your porch?

What marvels might find their way to your porch tomorrow? 

Please share your pictures in the comments.

Let's encourage one another as we keep our eyes open for the science little learners love!