NEPTUNE TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT
Office of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
Green Schools Project/Problem/Place Based Learning Instructional Design
Name of PBL: My First Nature Walk
Name of Author: Joe Woerner, Neptune Township
Board of Education
Grade Level and Content Area: First Grade, Science
I. OVERVIEW
The Scenario: Students are asked to imagine what it is like to walk deep into a forest. They are encouraged to
use their five senses to observe the forest during their walk.
Location of Project/Learning Environment:
SummerWood Forest Trail
Partnership/Community Connection: Green Acres, NJ
DEP, Township of Neptune Sewage Authority
Background: Forests are very different from open grassy areas. As you enter a forest, you can sense the
difference right away. It is much cooler and darker in a forest as the trees block the sun. Streams, insects and
birds replace the noise of city streets and children playing. The soil under your feet is soft and smells of freshly
decomposed leaves. If you know where to look, you can even taste the forest!
Relevance to Students:
 Provides the opportunity for student to explore a forest using their senses.
 Students have many questions about forests and what live in them. This activity provides students
with the opportunity to ask and answer their own questions.
 Students will walk away from this activity with an enhanced ability to sense the natural world and a
deeped understanding of forest ecosystems.
Implementation Time Frame: 1 hour, could be exteneded to 1.5 – 2 hours with pre and post writing activities.
LEED Categories: Sustainable Sites
Enduring Understandings:
Students will understand that…
 Through the use of their senses, they can pose and answer their own questions.
 Forests are habitats for a wide variety of plants and animals.
Essential Questions…
 How do scientists learn about forests?
 What lives in a forest beside trees?
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II. DESIRED OUTCOMES
National and NJCCCS 2009:
Established Goals:
 5.1.4.A.3 Use scientific facts, measurements observations and patterns in nature to build and critique
scientific arguments.
 5.1.4.B.3 Formulate explanations from evidence.
 5.1.4.C.2 Revise predictions or explanations on the basis of learning new information.
 5.2.2.A.1 Sort and describe objects based on the material of which they are made and their physical
properties.
 5.3.2.A.1 Group living and nonliving things according to the characteristics that they share.
 5.3.2.C.2 Identify the characteristics of a habitat that enable the habitat to support the growth of
many different plants and animals.
● 8.2.F.1 Use mapping tools to plan and choose alternate routes to and from various locations.
Objectives:
Students will know…
- How to use their 5 senses to explore the natural world.
- That observation can be used to explain what they see in the natural world.
- The difference between living and nonliving objects.
- That many organisms in the forest depend on trees for their habitat.
- Google Earth can be used to explore areas of their neighborhood.
Students will be able to …
 Science Skills – NJCCCS 2009:
- Make observations of the natural world using their 5 senses.
- Use observations to formulate predictions and evaluate predictions.
- Describe how trees interact with other living and nonliving things in a forest.
 Technology Integration:
Use “Google Earth” to track their forest walk and find another way to enter SummerWood
forest.
 Cross Curricular Connections
- Language Arts Literacy
- Physical Education
- Art
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III. SUGGESTED IMPLEMENTATION PLANS:
Focus:
- Close your eyes and imagine you are walking deep into a forest. What words would you use to describe the
forest? What things would you see? Hear? Smell? Taste? Feel?
- Create a word bank on the board of all student responses. Tell the students they will be visiting SummerWood
forest today. They will be using their five senses to explore the forest.
- In their science journals, have the students write the title and a prediction.
o My First Nature Walk
o Prediction: On my first nature walk I will: see…smell…feel…hear…taste…
- Before the nature walk, have the students create a list of questions about the forest that they would like to
answer. Write the list on the board before leaving the classroom.
Experience:
1. Blindfolded Sensory Walk
Opening: Take the students outside (this activity works best on a sunny day). Have the students hold hands in
a large circle. Have them close their eyes and listen for 30 seconds (cars, kids playing). Have them close their
eyes again and concentrate on what they feel on their face (wind, sun). Have them look up and describe what
they see (blue sky, clouds). Finally have the students take a deep breathe and describe what they smell. Share
after each step.
Before going into the forest, student will be given a spot on a rope (tie knots every 2 feet) and blindfolded. As
you lead the student through the forest, stop periodically and have the student focus on each of the 4 senses (no
taste here).
Once deep in the forest, take off the blind folds and repeat the opening sequence. Be sure to be in a spot where
the trees block the sun, wind and view of the sky, you can hear the Hankins Brook/Jumping Brook, birds and
insects and you can smell the fresh forest floor.
2. Sensory Stations
Retracing your step out of the forest, stop at the following six stations where the students can employ different
senses.
A. Use their eyes to identify poison ivy growing on trees.
B. Stop at a Red Maple tree and taste maple syrup.
C. Stop at Wild Raspberry bushes and taste raspberries.
D. Smell Pitch Pine needles and Sassafras leaves (skunk cabbage and onion grass in the spring).
E. Listen for bird and frog sounds – see if student can tell the difference between a Gold Finch and
Spring Peeper.
F. Mystery Bag – have students describe mystery object to each other until they guess the object. Then
group the objects based on size, shape, color, hardness, and living/non-living.
Reflection:
Once back in the classroom, have the student free write or draw about their nature walk in their science
journals. Use Google Earth to trace where in SummerWood they walked and have students explore other ways
to access SummerWood.
Application:
Have all students write a sentence and draw a picture for each of their senses. On my first nature walk I
saw…heard…smelled….felt…tasted… Discuss students’ experiences in the forest as they relate to their
predictions and the questions they had prior to the walk in the woods.
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IV. EVALUATION
Student Reflection: See Reflection in section III.
Performance Task:
 Product(s): See Application in section III.
 Intended Audience: First grade students, age 5 – 6 years old, in all Neptune Township Elementary
Schools
Other Evidence: Informal observations during the sensory stations, particularly during the grouping of objects
in the Mystery Bag station.
V. MATERIALS/REFERENCING:
Materials and Resources:
- 50-foot rope with knots tied every 2 feet
- 25 blindfolds
- Maple syrup and dropper
- 2 Mystery bags with rocks, Pine cones, acorns, Black Walnut fruit, Pine needles, Sweet Gum and
Sassafras leaves, Sweet Gum balls and moss.
- Dried raspberries
- Bird/Frog Song Caller
References:
This activity was adapted from “Sharing Nature with Children” by Joseph Cornell.
Special Documents:
SummerWood Field Trip form should be completed before this trip.
Accommodations for Special Needs/unique situations that need to be considered for this instructional
design:
When working with auditorily impaired students it is important to use the senses they feel most
comfortable with to make their observations.
Safety Accommodations:
Be sure to practice walking with student before entering the forest. Have one teacher at the end and
one at the beginning of the line. Be sure to watch students as they cross over the footbridge on the
access trail.
Additional Resources and Supplemental Environmental Education activities to support learning:
The following Project Learning Tree activities could be used to expand and enhance this activity:
The Shape of Things
Get in Touch with Trees
Peppermint Beetle
Sounds Around
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