Listen

Posted on by forstm

20180418_144228This week I visited Sabot School at Stony Point in Richmond, Virginia.  Sabot is a Pre-K through grade 8 independent school running a program that is Reggio Emilia inspired.  I’ve been a practitioner and learner within the Reggio inspired world since 1996 and I continue to find ways to grow.  This year Sabot’s school-wide Umbrella project is based on the book, Listen by Patty Wipfler.  As I explored the corridors filled with beautiful, child-designed projects, I was reminded of the wonder within the child.

When observing children it can be easy to jump on the first sign of a shared interest.  For instance, this year’s class has been strongly devoted to playing “family” since day one.  In the beginning, I thought, “Oh! I see they are curious about families.  We can dive right into this!”  In past years, this meant quickly gathering supporting materials (books, real-world-objects) to support the development of questions and ideas.  I was worried that if I waited, I would miss the opportunity to build on a shared idea.  This week at Sabot I learned to change my lens a bit.

As teachers, we are encouraged to listen with our whole being to understand a child’s true intent.  First observations regularly point out obvious, surface topics or trajectories.  Upon further observation and questioning, we can draw forward the children’s thinking.  We can help each child bring their theories to light and assist them as they test these ideas through investigation.

When reflecting on this family play, I am beginning to wonder if it is not so much the family unit that they are exploring, but the power of being in charge.  In this game, there is often one member of the family that is “in charge” and directs the others’ actions.  It is not always the same child.  Sometimes “the boss” is more diplomatic, sometimes more autocratic.  Whatever style the family leader tries on, the peers’ reactions to requests (or demands) begin to create an internal rule book for “how to be in charge and still get people to do things with you.”  I’m looking forward to exploring this perspective on “family play” with them in the upcoming weeks.

 

Road Trip (Part I)

Posted on by forstm

Two of our dear friends moved back to Florida last week.  We are already missing their smiles.  Sigh….

No worries! The children have a plan….

We’re going on a road trip to Florida! Yippee! Oh, fine, it is only imaginary, but we can still make our plans.  To assist in the planning, I photocopied all of the pertinent states from my trusty road atlas and stitched them together with old-fashioned scotch tape.  The class was quite surprised to find such a spaghetti mess of roads between here and there.  Yet undaunted, they began to take action.

First, the children decided we needed a car to get there.  Enter our trusty stand-by, a nice empty box.

Here are a few bits demonstrating the process and explaining some of the technical details:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YA9XSOPMVs]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwehzMJmp0A&w=560&h=315]

I think we’ll need to attack the map next….

Where does the water go?

Posted on by forstm

A while ago, one of the students posed a curious question about what happens to the water after it rains.  We discussed many possibilities, but eventually came to the conclusion that somehow it ended up in the clouds.  One of the most creative methods for this molecular travel was via invisible pipes in the trees that carry the water from the ground to the sky.

This week, we read more information about where water goes and how it travels.  The water cycle made sense, but it was still a bit confusing.  Hmmm…maybe a little music can help?

Enter Tom Chapin’s The Wheel of the Water:

Following the song, we made up our own motions to help us remember the journey of water as it recycle’s across our planet.  This song has now become an oft requested favorite.

Yesterday, I asked the children to write about their favorite part of the water cycle.

Luckily, the weather has been cooperative, providing lots of direct observation opportunities.  Who knew playing in the rain could garner so much learning?

 

 

Environmental Stewardship

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While reading about and discussing animal migration, we discovered that some species are forced to migrate due to changing environmental factors. Walruses must move their families as temperatures rise around the globe causing their needed ice flows to melt.  The children were deeply concerned about this.  One child explained that this occurs due to global warming.  He shared that people all over the world are using gas and making smoke that goes up into the air and makes the temperatures go up.  Another child mentioned that sometimes there is trash in the water, as well.

This conversation inspired the children to invent some very creative machines to help clean-up the Earth.

Little Ornithologists

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It is certainly Spring.  We’ve been keeping an eye on our feathered visitors for a few weeks now.  The mother Canadian goose made her annual nest on the island situated within our pond.  This Monday, we discovered that she had left her nest.  We had to search around for a bit, but we finally found her!

Deconstruction

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So, if we are going to be building all of these flying machines, where can we find the materials the children will require?

No worries!

We’ll just find the parts laying around!

P1110322
I knew this would come in handy!

 

(dissassembling that broken audio cassette player we mentioned earlier this spring)

Flying Machines

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Our interest in flying birds has sparked an avalanche of engineering ideas.  One student suggested that the best way for us to study the birds would be to build a flying machine.  This way we could observe our feathered friends more closely.

Many of the children have begun creating prototypes (their word, not ours).

On another day we asked them what materials they would need for their machines. (We want to make sure we’re prepared!)

“metal, string, more metal, and gas”

“We have to do little wires to make them work.”

“very small metal pieces”

“We need some wire that carries electricity to keep the boosters working.”

“We need a plug as big as this building so we can go far.”

“Or, we need to make a fire on a stick and it attaches to the wire.”

“We can make a seat out of fabric.”

“We need shirts to make a buckle, it buckles in front and in back.”

“June is when the birds come out.”

“We need a parachute and a lighter, in case the boosters go out.”

“And metal cages to catch the bird, with food in it.”

“fabric for the wings”

“We need feathers for the wings.”

“space gears”

Honk!

Posted on by forstm

Upon returning from our Spring Break, we noticed two new inhabitants near our pond.

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We have been watching them from afar and are beginning to formulate questions about our new feathered friends.  The goose above can be found sitting on the pond’s island, visible from the both the pond and fireplace decks.  The other goose can frequently be found hanging out on our sled riding hill.  We can easily observe the former from our Nature Playground.

This morning, we asked the children where they thought the geese might have been before arriving at our school

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We had answers ranging from “Up north” to “Hawaii”.  The children noticed that some of the ideas held connections.  Many places were warmer than Pennsylvania and a few listed the same state.  One of the students added that geese like to go where it is warm in the winter and referred to it as “hibernation.”  This set other children on their toes, with their hands waving madly in the air.  It took us a few tries, but eventually we figured out that it is actually called “migration” and that hibernation is something different.

Our new questions are:

Who hibernates? Who migrates?

We’ve asked the children to help us figure out where to find the information.