Using Teacher Dialogue to Bring Nature Based Learning to Kindergarten: The Hippo Inquiry

During a three month period, partner and student teachers were involved in a hippo inquiry project with two classes of kindergarten children. Their collaborative investigation centered upon pursuing this essential question: How are people living respectfully with hippos? They did so by learning about the Calgary Zoo’s support of the Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary (WCHS), a unique commu-nity-based project, protecting and pre-serving the wildlife and environment of a 40km stretch of the Black Volta River in Ghana’s upper west area. Nurturing a classroom climate that invites young children to explore gen-erous possibilities and make discover-ies inherent in an emergent curricu-lum was integral to this work. Together the teachers explored differ-entiated teaching strategies which helped them work effectively with children of diverse backgrounds, interests and skills. Valuing connec-tions with the world outside the class-room motivated this teacher team to invite a zoology professor, a zoo edu-cation director, and a naturalist to deepen this nature based inquiry.