The Pipe Pond: A Slate School Wetland Blog

By Grace Kenney, Environmentalist

During one of the occasional thaws this winter, the Kindergarteners in Treetop made an amazing discovery: the “Pipe Pond!” The sight and sound of running water called to them across the stretch of wetland meadow between the Piney Woods and the driveway. They found the source of the water tumbling out of a drainage culvert. Something easily overlooked by many inspired the wonder we see here every day.

Clad head-to-toe in colorful rain gear and rubber boots, the children began to interact with the water and surrounding features. As in so many moments leading up to important discoveries, we heard the words, “I have an idea!”

“Let’s make a frog pond!” 

“We can use the rocks to block it and make a pond.”

“Let’s make a river! It could be a boat race!” 

The cobbles acting as a catch-basin below the pipe were shifted and rearranged, stacked and balanced, toppled and stacked again. Some were large enough that it took two children together to move them. Twigs became bridges, and leaves became boats. A fairy garden began to grow along the banks of the puddle. All the while conversations like, “It doesn’t have to be just one idea. One idea isn’t better than the other…” and “That could be a good idea! What if we did it like this instead?” could be overheard as they navigated playing in the same small space with overlapping ideas.

This miniature landscape gives the children a place to be the explorers and engineers of earth systems that function on scales perhaps too big to be imagined at this young age. They encounter ideas about rivers, watersheds, dams, and bridges here at the Pipe Pond. Their play later lends itself to deeper understandings about these processes on larger scales. They notice where the water comes from (“There is so much water coming out of it! It’s because of the rain!”) and where the water goes (“Look, the stream goes this way through the meadow towards the pond….”). They observe what gets carried by the water (one child discovers a lost paper airplane several yards downstream). They see what happens when the water is blocked (a pool of water is formed and the stream becomes a trickle) and whether a bridge can still let water flow underneath while still being sturdy enough not to collapse (another child experiments with one long stick spanning the whole stream versus a series of shorter twigs held up by cobbles placed within the flow of water).

Their time at the Pipe Pond stream helps these children understand local rivers and watersheds like the Quinnipiac, Mill, Connecticut, and Housatonic Rivers near their homes. What they gather from playing with rainwater pouring out of a driveway culvert on a warm winter’s day gives insight into the world’s mightiest rivers like the Amazon, the Nile, the Yangtze, the Mississippi, and the Colorado. The same types of questions can be asked of each setting: What happens when you block the water, or dig a new channel? What happens when it rains hard, or not enough? What is left behind when the water recedes? Where does the water go, and where did it come from in the first place? Who needs this water, and how do we make sure it is well cared for? 

Over the years, children at Slate School have related what they explore at places like the Pipe Pond to the study of these larger water systems. Last year’s 5th grade class spent time thinking about how the ecological impacts of damming of the Colorado River were layered in complexity, and they confronted how often simple “solutions” have unintended consequences. A 3rd and 4th grade class studying the Amazon River as a part of a South America continent study compared the average flow rates of the Amazon to the flow rate of the Pipe Pond culvert for several days following a rainstorm. This past Fall, the 1st and 2nd grade class contemplated the musical piece “Moldau” by Smetana, which follows the journey of the Moldau (or Vlata) River through the landscapes of the Czech Republic, from its origin of two mountain springs to where it flows through the city of Prague. The children explored this musical representation of geography using their own lived interactions with streams and rivers as a reference point.  

The experiences the children have in a place as overlooked and unseen as a driveway culvert, edging the wetland meadow where they play every day, are tributaries of information that flow into a larger river of knowledge they bring with them through life. For these kindergarteners, our job as educators is first to acknowledge that the children are building meaning for themselves in these moments. Their play teaches them how to interact with other people, and how to interact with the world. We also follow their play and the magic of their discoveries to cultivate further learning. Field garlic and wild parsnips found on the banks of the stream travel back to classrooms in muddy hands, ready to be found in the pages of a field guide. The paper airplane is reverse engineered and recreated. Bridge architecture books are checked out of the library. A rainy day by the Pipe Pond opens a world of possibilities.