Exploration trips out of doors enable the children to increase awareness of their environment and encourage them to discover the world in which they live. Classroom pets, animals, plants, snow, wind, light, shadow, and contemplation of other natural phenomena as they occur heighten their interest in the natural world. Simple experiments are often devised to further understand how and why things happen. Our teachers may pose a hypothesis through a question or it may come from the children. Together, teachers and students devise ways to test assumptions. Simple machines are also examined and explored in various ways through both play and formal observation. Children are helped to experience the beauty and wonder of nature and to begin to see their effect on the world.
The birth of pets, as well as death, may be experienced and discussed. Death of living things is regarded as part of the cycle of life, as is birth. Both are included in our science curriculum as the study of living things; and, from an affective perspective, both are also part of the social studies and family life curriculum.