The Little Garden class (3-4 year olds) helped take care of blueberry plants on the school’s property when they were in the 2 year old class. The journal shows how Committee work is utilized in the classroom to help further and organize the children’s inquiries.
We are at an exciting point in our Blueberry Inquiry in the Little Garden class! The children have been busy generating ideas for how to take care of the blueberries using different modes of expression - whole and small group dialogues, storytelling, and graphic representations (drawings and paintings). We teachers have been busy gathering these ideas and data (the observation and data collection point in the Cycle of Inquiry.) The next step we are involved in right now is data analysis where we synthesize the children's work looking for themes about their theories, assumptions, and questions about their experiences.
These themes fit within the umbrella of core concepts - the "big picture goals" or "why" of what is happening for the children developmentally) that is fueling the children to think/investigate/explore themes over and over again. Core concepts are connected to children's development - they are the fundamental ideas that tie children's experiences together because of their connection to children's social, emotional, cognitive, and motor development at particular ages.
Protection: How to keep the blueberries safe! This idea came up on our very first day reconnecting with the blueberries when Laney drew a monster that would protect the blueberries from birds. It has been a popular topic in our conversations with underlying themes of power and being strong, along with exploring ways of physically keeping things contained. Ideas so far have been - imaginary creatures to protect (monster or witch); animals to protect (tigers, lions, bears, bunnies, spiders); creating a barrier (wall of stones or a spider web.)
There is a high level of the intersection of fantasy and reality within this committee - very literal concepts like a wall or animal and very abstract concepts like a monster or witch...we wonder how will the children choose to represent these ideas?
Gift Giving: Connecting to each other and things we care about by giving gifts. This idea came up during a walk on Monday when Sophia said she wanted to give the blueberries some chocolate as a present. This was an intriguing idea - another way of taking care of someone or something is to give of yourself to them. We brought this idea back to the class on Tuesday and many of the children did drawings of things to give the blueberries. Gift ideas include: baby dolls; food (various flavors of cake, ice cream, chocolate); shapes (star, diamond, a round shape); balloons. We wonder if the children how the children will choose to represent one or more of these ideas, and what materials they will choose?
Fixing: Empowerment through being able to enact change on the world. Being can-do problem solvers using new tools and strategies! Fixing the wobbliness of the heart (and the green artichoke sign also in that space) has been top priority for a few children thus far, and they have become very attached to the use of real tools. Idea for fixing include: to use tools (hammer, drill, screwdriver); dump trucks or bulldozers; paint the heart; play with the heart.
The children's creative thinking is on fire already, and we are very interested to see how the further organization of ideas as we move forward allows the children to shift and develop their ideas
Breaking into committees to tackle certain ideas is a strategy we use to help the children organize their thinking in the context of an inquiry or long term study. There can be so many ideas being generated (as we have seen so clearly in our blueberry work thus far) that following up on each one can be tricky. Committee work offers a natural way for us to group ideas into themes (as we shared above) where children can go deeper into one or two ideas that fall within in the same theme. Committee members meet as small groups to share and discuss ideas, debate, reformulate and revisit ideas, agree about plans and act on them. These are opportunities for children to work closely with the same group of their peers (as the committees will meet consistently over the coming weeks.) Children are pushed into collaboration with peers with varied learning styles. There is valuable interpersonal learning within committees because they offer a natural avenue to explore how children work in relationship with someone who approaches things in a similar or different way. There are many group problem-solving opportunities in committees, and the children learn so much about their fellow committee members as well as themselves through the process.
So here we are! The time has come for committees. At our circle time meeting on Thursday 10/10 we brought a chart with words and symbols to show the 3 committees the children can choose from. The committees are directly related to the Core Concepts within the inquiry: Protection, Gift Giving, Fixing.
The below video is of our circle meeting and shows the children taking turns to carefully choose which committee they would be on. It is long (13 minutes), but we are so, so excited to share it with you because it really exemplifies how invested the children are in both choosing their own committee and watching their classmates choose as well. We notice the children paying close attention each other as they make their choices, clapping and acknowledging when a choice is made. We notice theories being posed about other things growing on the side yard, and theories about which individual ideas might be explored in the committees.
After the committees were chosen, the Fixing Committee (Treesha, Finn, Mati, and Grace) went out to the woodworking porch (the front porch of the school) to explore tools more that we might use to fix the heart and sign. I decided to start with hammers (a tool they were very interested in when out at the heart) and nails on the woodworking porch - I chose small nails and softer wood that would be more satisfying to hammer into.
As you will see in the below video, I focused my time initially giving fairly direct instructions about how to use the materials. I focused my language on the safety of using the tools, encouraging the children to only use the hammers on the wood or nails, and supporting them in getting the nail started into the wood as their first step. I was reminded how heavy of a tool these hammers are as I observed the children using the tools. Treesha negotiated using the hammer in coordination with making contact with the nail. Mati's nail went down, but bent on the way! Finn explored how to use more than one nail on the wood. Grace explored both sides of the hammer and then focused in on getting her one nail into the wood, putting her whole body into it.
The children felt such delight in their accomplishments during and after the woodworking session - Mati exclaimed, "I did it!" as his nail went into the wood. This feeling of empowerment is a wonderful aspect of woodworking - the children feel confident and "big" in being able to use "grown-up" tools, and truly do combine motor actions when doing so (gross motor when hammering, fine motor when holding the nails.)
After the woodworking visit we went to check on the heart and sign. Treesha decided to water the blueberries, while Mati and Finn wanted to bring more dirt to the wobbly spot. Grace, in touching the heart, found the string holding it was too flimsy and it fell down (again!) The perfect opportunity to rally the committee to decide what to do in that moment!
Finn: I can wash the heart...
Grace: We should hammer it.
Mati: I can water it.
Treesha: We should use a stick (to fix it.)
We ran out of time before Music Class, so this will be tabled until the next meeting of the Fixing Committee. The heart is once again in our classroom, so maybe some other children will have thoughts about it as they interact with it throughout our days.
Warmly,
Petra and Tim
Stay up to date with all the latest updates about The Collaboratory. It’s free.
I notice – I wonder