This morning I had the pleasure of watching a short film with artist Vicky Thomas about being fascinated by nature. At one point she laughs at how many times she says “Oh, look!” I laughed as she said it, because I hear myself saying “that “Oh, look!” over and over again as I hike.

I’m thinking about my Kindergartners as the new school year approaches, and thought — OH! An Oh, look! walk would be a great things to do with my Kindergartners. As I said it, I wondered what we might find as we wandered around our campus. I popped out on my patio for a mini Kindergartner-less trial run.

First, I noticed the many different colors of green in our fig tree sapling. As I looked more closely, I noticed the veins and some sort of white dots. Then I took a photo of some sprouts from an unknown bulb my brother found and planted in a small pot. When I looked at the photo, I noticed something that made me go back for another look and another photograph.

A tiny little water droplet that I missed when I looked the first time. If you look even more closely at the first image, you might see a reflection of me in the water droplet! WOW. The second photo gives you an idea of the size of the water droplet.

Inspired by the little things that I missed on my first scan, I began looking for small wonders. I love the swirls of the unopened marigold. Again, they are much smaller than the photo suggests.

Why would I want to take my Kindergartners on an Oh look! walk? Here are some of my first thoughts:

• We practice and learn to look, and then look again, perhaps more closely.
• We look for big things, and then little things. We come to notice the value the second look and the small wonders.
• We are affirmed that our findings, thoughts, noticings, wonderings are valuable and worth sharing.
• We discover we are brave enough to share them.
• We practice living the fact that the things others share are valuable and worthy of being listened to.
• We notice we are kind enough to take a breath and listen.
• We learn the importance of patience.
• We discover the importance of compromise — perhaps a butterfly that might fly away should be shared before a flower that will wait for us.
• We begin to experience the okness of impermanence. If the butterfly flies away, you still experienced it’s beauty and can share what you saw.
• We recognize the value of conversation. How and what do you share? How and what might we notice, comment on, or question about your sharing?
• We get some fresh air, movement, and hopefully a nice dose of Vitamin N (nature).

All these things are essential components and habits of learning. I’m excited for our first Oh look! walk.

Oh, one more thought. Once we get comfortable with our Oh look walks, we can add elements of sketching, note taking, labeling, and documentation.