From Me to We: Discovering Our Place in the World

Our journey began with a simple but important subject: ourselves.

Through self-portraits, conversations about our names, explorations of our bodies, and family experiences, the children began developing a deeper understanding of identity. They considered questions such as: Who am I? What makes me unique? Who belongs to my family?

As their understanding of self grew, we began widening our lens.

If this is who I am, where do I belong?

Looking Beyond Ourselves

We started by looking closely at the environment immediately around us—our classroom, our school, our garden, and the natural spaces we encounter each day.

The children began noticing the many things that share these spaces with us. There are trees and flowers, insects crawling beneath leaves, birds overhead, rocks, soil, water, buildings, toys, and countless other things waiting to be investigated.

These observations introduced a new question:

What is living, and what is nonliving?

Rather than simply giving children the answers, we invited them to observe, compare, wonder, and develop their own theories.

Does it grow?

Does it need water?

Does it breathe?

Can it move?

What does it need to survive?

A rock does not need food or water—but a plant does. A toy animal can move when we move it, but is it alive? An insect may be very small, but what tells us that it is living?

These conversations encouraged the children to look more carefully at the world around them.

Every Living Thing Needs a Place

Our investigation of living things naturally led us to another discovery: living things need environments that support them.

We began exploring habitats.

Animals do not all live in the same places. Some live in forests, some in deserts, some underground, some in oceans, and others make their homes right alongside us.

Each habitat provides different resources—food, water, shelter, space, and protection.

And then came another connection:

Humans need these things too.

Our habitat may look different from that of a bird, fish, or insect, but people also need places where we can live, grow, feel safe, find food and water, and care for one another.

For us, those places become communities.

From Habitat to Community

As we explore what makes a community, the children are beginning to recognize that a community is more than a collection of houses, streets, and buildings.

A community is made of people.

There are people who teach us, care for us when we are sick, grow and prepare our food, keep our neighborhoods safe, build and repair things, deliver our mail, care for animals, and help us in countless other ways.

This opens the door to our next investigation: the people who help a community work.

Rather than learning community workers simply by their job titles, we want the children to investigate their roles.

What does our community need?

Who helps meet those needs?

What would happen if that person were not there?

How do people work together?

And perhaps most importantly:

How can we help too?

Belonging Comes With Responsibility

Through this journey, another important idea is emerging.

We don’t simply live in our environment.

We belong to it.

And belonging means that we have a responsibility to care for the spaces and living things around us.

For young children, environmental responsibility begins with small, meaningful actions: caring for classroom plants, respecting insects rather than immediately fearing or harming them, conserving materials, picking up litter, caring for our garden, and noticing how our choices affect other living things.

The same idea extends into our classroom and community.

We take care of our materials.

We take care of our environment.

We take care of living things.

And we take care of one another.

Our investigation that began with “Who am I?” is slowly becoming something much bigger:

Who am I?

Where do I belong?

Who shares this world with me?

What does my community need?

And ultimately—

What is my responsibility as a member of it?

This is how our study of self becomes a study of belonging, environment, community, and citizenship—helping children recognize that even at a young age, they already have an important place in the world around them.

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从“我”到“我们”：探索我们在世界中的位置

我们的探索之旅从一个简单却非常重要的主题开始——我们自己。

通过自画像、关于名字的讨论、对身体的探索以及家庭活动，孩子们开始更深入地认识自己的身份。他们思考着：我是谁？是什么让我与众不同？我的家庭里有谁？

随着孩子们对“自我”的认识逐渐加深，我们开始把视野慢慢扩大。

如果这就是“我”，那么我属于哪里呢？

从自己走向周围的世界

我们开始仔细观察离我们最近的环境——我们的教室、学校、花园，以及每天都会接触到的自然空间。

孩子们逐渐注意到，在这些空间里，还有许许多多与我们共同存在的事物：树木和花朵、藏在叶子下面的小昆虫、天空中的鸟儿、石头、泥土、水、建筑物、玩具，以及无数等待我们去发现和探索的事物。

这些观察带来了一个新的问题：

什么是有生命的？什么是没有生命的？

我们没有急着直接告诉孩子答案，而是鼓励他们去观察、比较、思考，并提出自己的猜想。

它会生长吗？

它需要水吗？

它会呼吸吗？

它会移动吗？

它需要什么才能生存？

石头不需要食物和水，但植物需要。玩具动物在我们推动它的时候也会移动，可是它有生命吗？昆虫虽然很小，但我们怎么知道它是有生命的呢？

这些讨论鼓励孩子们更加仔细地观察周围的世界。

每一个生命都需要一个适合自己的地方

当我们开始研究各种生命时，孩子们自然而然地发现了另一个重要的概念：

所有生命都需要一个能够满足其生存需求的环境。

于是，我们开始探索不同的栖息地。

动物并不都生活在同样的地方。有些生活在森林里，有些生活在沙漠里，有些住在地下，有些生活在海洋中，还有一些动物就生活在我们的身边。

不同的栖息地能够提供不同的资源——食物、水、住所、活动空间以及保护。

接着，我们又发现了一个新的联系：

人类也需要这些东西。

我们的生活环境可能与鸟类、鱼类或昆虫的栖息地不同，但人类同样需要一个能够生活、成长、获得安全感、找到食物和水，并彼此照顾的地方。

对于人类来说，这样的地方逐渐形成了我们的社区。

从栖息地走向社区

随着我们继续探索“什么是社区”，孩子们开始发现，社区不仅仅是房屋、街道和建筑物的集合。

社区是由人组成的。

在我们的社区里，有教导我们的人，有在我们生病时照顾我们的人，有种植和准备食物的人，有保护社区安全的人，有建造和维修设施的人，有为我们递送邮件的人，也有照顾动物的人。

每一个人都以不同的方式为社区作出贡献。

这也为我们的下一个探索主题打开了大门——那些帮助社区正常运作的人。

我们不会只让孩子们记住不同社区工作者的职业名称，而是希望他们进一步思考这些人的角色和意义：

我们的社区需要什么？

谁帮助我们满足这些需要？

如果没有这些人，会发生什么？

人们是怎样互相合作的？

而也许最重要的问题是：

我们自己可以怎样帮助社区呢？

归属也意味着责任

在这一系列探索中，另一个重要的想法也慢慢出现了。

我们不仅仅是生活在环境之中。

我们也是环境的一部分。

而当我们属于一个地方时，我们也有责任去爱护它，并照顾与我们共享这个世界的其他生命。

对于幼儿来说，保护环境可以从许多简单却有意义的小行动开始：照顾教室里的植物、尊重昆虫而不是因为害怕就伤害它们、珍惜和节约材料、捡起垃圾、照顾我们的花园，以及开始意识到自己的选择会怎样影响其他生命。

同样的理念也可以延伸到我们的教室和社区。

我们爱护我们的材料。

我们爱护我们的环境。

我们关爱身边的生命。

我们也彼此关心和照顾。

最初从 “我是谁？” 开始的探索，现在正慢慢发展成为一些更加广阔的问题：

我是谁？

我属于哪里？

谁与我共同生活在这个世界上？

我的社区需要什么？

最终，我们希望孩子们开始思考——

作为社区中的一员，我可以承担什么责任？

就这样，我们从对“自我”的探索，逐渐走向对归属、环境、社区和责任感的理解。

在这个过程中，孩子们也开始发现：即使他们还很小，他们已经是这个世界重要的一员，也已经拥有照顾自己、关心他人以及爱护周围环境的能力。