Last week one of our students found a small nest on her way to school. The exploration of the nest during our sharing circle produced a lot of wonderment from the students:
E.A.: I wonder what kind of bird made it. I thought maybe a sparrow or a robin or a hummingbird.
H.K.: I wonder if a baby was born in the nest.
J.M.: I wonder why the nest is so small. Can it be a real nest? Maybe it’s too small to be somebody’s nest.
G.M.: I wonder where the nest came from. Maybe it was in a tree and the wind blew it down and then E.A. found it.
J.K.: I wonder what the leaves inside are for.
C.G.: I wonder where the baby has gone to.
A.: I wonder where the mom has gone to.
After reading some supporting materials about birds and their nests and the nests of other creatures, we created a provocation to see who the children thought may have made the nest. The small size of the nest was quite puzzling to the children, as they could not seem to imagine how a bird and her babies could fit inside.

Here is the drawing S.M. made after looking inside one of our nest books:

S.M: “A bee. It has to be something so small because the nest is so small.”

Here are a few samples of some other ideas the children came up with:

I am excited to see where this discussion goes next week as we delve into how animals prepare for winter and explore other nests in our neighbourhood!