Nueva Magazine – Fall 2021/Winter 2022

The Freedom to be Curious: Gifted Teaching and Learning at Nueva

A mole died. That’s where the story began. But where it went in Paul Knight and Rashida Blade’s kindergarten class in spring 2021 could only be described as building a mountain out of a molehill—in the best of ways—and exemplifies what gifted learning at Nueva looks like.

Following the unexpected discovery of a crow eating a dead mole near the Ballet Lawn on the Hillsborough campus, kindergarten students covered the mole in periwinkles and forget-me-not flowers (“to help its family remember it,” Paul shared) and began to ask a multitude of questions about the mole, its life, and its habitat. Paul and Rashida channeled that insatiable curiously into a deeper dive study with multiple entry points for learning and growth.

The class began their deep dive by reading books about moles—“The library had more than 30!” Paul said. Books covered topics including anatomy, homes, food chain, etymology, and senses. A large part of this new study centered around social-emotional learning (SEL), as students wondered why gardeners hate moles when moles don’t even eat plants (the answer: moles usually feed on insect pests, grubs, and soil organisms, including beneficial ones like earthworms). As scientists, kindergarteners looked closely at photos and videos of moles and recorded their findings with scientific drawings.

Later, students buried fake worms in their larder (where moles store hundreds of decapitated worms until they are ready to eat them) in the sandbox and then dug holes in the sand “to experience the ways moles ‘swim’ through dirt and find the larder,” Paul added.

To work on their fine motor skills, students sewed their own mole stuffies. They did a structured word inquiry to learn more about where the word “mole” comes from (hint: it may come from the Proto-Germanic word “moldwarp,” which literally means “earth-thrower”).

When the students reached the end of their inquiry, they had a deeper understanding of this little creature they had found, and they had been given the time and space to process and grieve its death.

“This study exemplifies Nueva teaching and learning because our curricula are responsive and emergent,” said Elizabeth Rossini, Nueva’s director of teaching and learning. “It demonstrated the ways our faculty co-create units of study in partnership with their students, while also staying true to the same overarching goals articulated for kindergarten. And, most importantly, it followed the intensities of our students.”

Magnifying lens in hand, student Tessa L. investigates a photograph of a mole as part of a scientific exploration.

To read the full story, visit nuevaschool.org/magazine.