Jeffers Pond fifth grade, preschool students team up to learn

Prior Lake American

On a brisk Thursday morning, fifth-grade and preschool students at Jeffers Pond Elementary in Prior Lake took to the outdoors to observe chickadees.

The students had left bird feeders at various spots in the outdoor learning center of the school and were deciding whether to move the feeders to a different location based on what chickadees like or need. They then determined what fraction of the feed the birds had eaten.

The lesson is part of a weekly buddies program at Jeffers Pond Elementary, where fifth-grade and preschool students pair off and work together on a lesson.

The program, which was developed and is run by preschool teacher Anna Dutke and fifth grade teacher Anne Nelson, began four years ago and has since become an example of nature-based learning in the Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools district.

“The preschoolers ask questions the fifth-graders don’t think of,” Nelson said. “Their science scores have gone way up since we started doing this.”

With the chickadees project, the fifth-grade students made a hypothesis about where to put the feeders. Some suggested chickadees would want shelter from predators while eating and put feeders in areas with more trees. Others said the birds should be able to easily spot the food from a nest or while flying and so put the feeders in more open areas.

The preschooler then documented how much food had been eaten since the last time by coloring in a picture of the feeder.

“The preschoolers thrive, as younger students, with that one-on-one attention,” Dutke said. “It gets (the fifth-graders) thinking because the preschoolers will question what they’re doing. It helps them to learn the content and teach it to the younger students.”

The program is part of a growing movement in the United States for nature-based schooling — to have students learn outdoors.

“The teachers are seeing the need and benefit, and the parents are requesting it,” Dutke said.

Fifth-grade student Cooper Beardsley said he likes being able to get outside with his preschool buddy.

“It can be fun,” Cooper said. “It’s different. Instead of sitting in a classroom, we get to go outside and do it.”

Nelson said parents were worried at first about how the fifth-grade and preschool students would get along, but the program is often the older students’ favorite part of the school year.

“They do love each other,” Nelson said. “They hate saying goodbye at the end of the year. It’s a good relationship.”

In addition to the lessons, which are structured around fifth-grade standards, Nelson said the buddies program teaches the fifth-grade students to be kind and gentle to their younger counterparts.

“They learn to be better human beings,” Nelson said.