Kindergarten Crew // Hands-On Learning

Kindergarten is getting down and dirty for their new expedition on farms and gardens. During this expedition, scholars will learn about the soil, worms, the life cycle of plants, their needs, and how to care for plants. So far they have planted their very own radish, and salad leaves plants in their classroom to get a little hands-on practice on caring for a potted plant. They will soon meet with their expedition expert Billie, who owns the Brightmoor Youth Garden and is where kindergarten completed their field work to learn about gardens and how to take care of a farm. Bille will teach the students how to grow crops in DAA's garden.  

Aside from the academic standards kindergarteners are exploring, there are so many character habits that are in practice during this expedition. Students are challenged to show all of DAA's habits of character which are: Compassion, Responsibility, Integrity, Perseverance, Cooperation, and Curiosity and Creativity. They are pushed to learn how they can show compassion for nature and how they can contribute to the growth of their crops. This lends itself to responsibility. They have learned what a plant needs, therefore they are expected to water their plant daily to keep the crops healthy. Cooperation is a must! From planting our plants in pots to eventually planting our crops in our DAA garden, we have to work together to get the job done. They showed an enormous amount of compassion and responsibility when weeding the garden to get it ready for Billie when she visits. Integrity is shown in how kindergarten interacts with our expedition material. It takes a lot of integrity and responsibility to weed the garden with minimal assistance independently. Curiosity & Creativity and perseverance come into play when they ask questions about plants and problem solve during our expedition. Even when content is hard, they never give up!

Who says hands-on activities in kindergarten no longer exist? No in this classroom. We get down and dirty!