From a CANVAS Facebook post

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[City Trip: Summer Wildlife Exploration Team in Daikanyama]

On August 4, we held our Summer Wildlife Exploration Team event at SodaCCo in Daikanyama!

We welcomed professional naturalist Hiroshi Sasaki as our instructor.
With Mr. Sasaki as their team leader, the young explorers interacted with various aspects of nature throughout Daikanyama.

We set off on foot from the venue to the park, our exploration site!
Once we entered the park, it felt very cool—perhaps thanks to all the trees.
In the preschool class, the children explored nature using their “eyes, ears, nose, and hands.” After discovering nature with their eyes, listening with their ears, smelling with their nose, and touching with their hands, they placed a sticker on a card as a mark of completion.
They found and collected lots of cicada shells, and some children even caught lizards, exclaiming, “There’s a lizard!”
They also observed their surroundings closely using Captain Sasaki’s observation tools.

In the elementary school class, the children observed the connections within nature.
While exploring the park, they sketched things in nature that caught their attention.
From there, they used a word-chain game to think of the next connection and created four sketches. Finally, they linked them together to explore the connections in nature.
Starting with a patch of grass, then the ants there, followed by fruit that had fallen from a tree, which the ants then ate as food…
Each child came up with various connections like these.
Some children searched intently for ants, wondering, “Where do ants’ legs grow?” while others asked, “Where exactly are the stars on a seven-spotted ladybug?”
They asked Captain Sasaki about questions that came to mind while sketching,
or observed things closely on their own.

When we looked at nature with a sense of these connections, even the same scenery seemed to look a little different than usual.
Daikanyama has a very urban image, but
even within that, there’s a wealth of nature and living creatures.
It was a wildlife exploration expedition that left a lasting impression, especially the children’s captivated expressions as they discovered all kinds of nature!