Science and the Outdoor Classroom

“The bird in the birdhouse today had a yellow feather in its tail.” “Bees make honey and they can sting. Come on — let’s pretend we are bees and we can sting people.” “If you shout into that garage, it echoes!” “You need leaves! Two handfuls!” The Richness of the Outdoors The above comments from children, recorded by teachersduring outside time, may appear at first to be nothingmore than the typical language you hear when children feel the freedom of being outdoors. If you listen more closely, you will recognize the amazing variety of ideas and concepts that children are constructing and processing. We know that children are experimenters and testers from birth. As young chil-dren explore their world, they use same processe