Wednesday, April 12, 2023

4/12/2023

Small Moments

While on our Reggio study tour, we often observed documentation and presentations that focused on small stories. Sometimes, these examples featured only two or three children. When we zero in like this, we notice several things. To name just a few:

the relationships that children have with one another,
the relationships children have with materials,
the connections that children make between their previous knowledge and a new experience,
collaboration and problem solving,
the possibility of trying something new or making a discovery

Here's some examples of things we saw yesterday and today.

Small Moments Outside

The rocking boat was turned on its side, and made an excellent home or hiding place.
Jade - Do you want to have an Africa house? (Here Jade is remembering houses she saw n her recent trip to Africa and working to build one.)
Saul - I think you need some big blocks, like this. (Noticing some problems with stability, he brings over larger hollow blocks) I think you

The finished home.

With assistance from a teacher, Ford practiced grabbing and jumping onto the rope swing. When he finished, he coached Ellie on the process. He even pushed her once she was on the swing.

Small World Moments and New Ideas

Cate's creatures hosted a game night!

Small world is very popular and has been offered every day for months. In spite of this, children often develop new ideas to include in their play.

There has been plenty of "cooking" in small world. Yesterday was the first day that the idea of a restaurant emerged.

Cal included a beach (sandpaper) and the ocean (blue fabric) in his scenario.

Watercolors: Sharing Expertise

Today and yesterday, Wilder was eager to return to cherry blossom watercolors. He remembered that he'd previously used small dots to represent the blossoms. As they watched him carefully painting, many friends implemented the same technique. Cate, Seon, Mimi, Ellie, Hugh, Capers, and Finlay all incorporated dots into their work.

Problem Solving in Book Illustration

Hugh has been diligently working on his 11 page book for over a week. Today, as he was illustrating one of the final pages, he realized that his drawing didn't really reflect the words on that page.
Hugh - I made a mistake on this drawing. I'm going to add one thing to the story so that it makes sense with this drawing; so it's not like I made a mistake.