In its name Write Out is about getting outside and writing under the influence of whatever nature happens to be around. But as a classroom teacher, sometimes I need to invite nature inside instead of taking my students out.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge proponent of getting students outside, especially for writing. But with a bag of acorns, carefully collected by a friend in another part of the state, sitting at tables with hand lenses and sketchpads was just what we needed today.

We started by reading Because of an Acorn…twice! My first grade students enjoyed searching for hints about what the next page would reveal. They noticed the life cycle and food cycle in the story, and it was a perfect time to talk about the ecosystem that included the acorn.

There is nothing like a hand lens to get students to look carefully. They looked, listened, smelled, and rattled these little nuts. They took out their sketch pads and carefully captured their observations, also including a number, what they noticed, and what the acorn reminded them of.

Later this week we will finish an Andy Warhol-inspired acorn art project and write some poetry inspired by our acorn observations. There is nothing quite like bringing nature into the classroom to help students connect and fall in love with all that the earth has to offer. After all, we want these 6 and 7 year olds to grow up to care about and take care of our planet.

How might you bring #writeout in if you are not able to get out?