As each child poured the water through the funnels, they stopped and observed the result. Repeating this action again and again in an effort to understand how it works, how the water moves, and what he or she can do to effect this.
I posed a question to the children, "How could we put water into this empty container?" The children immediately began using their cups to fill it!
A key to encouraging social interaction is to provide materials and experiences that children will find difficult to deal with all alone or that just aren't as much fun that way.
-Chaille and Britain p45
The children were able to experiment with how the balls roll through the tunnel when propped up on a block vs...
vs...the tunnel laying flat. Even if they know the answer is No, the balls do not roll on their own through a tunnel laying flat. They have the opportunity to explore, "Why?" The children are able to effect the speed of the ball as well as the direction of the ball when they experiment with propping the tunnel up on two blocks or just one, pointing the tunnel this way vs. that way, etc...
When this guy showed some hesitation about getting into the dirt he asked his Mama to join him. She happily obliged and even though he didn't require her presence in the dirt for too long, it gave him just the confidence he needed to stay in this area for an extended amount of time exploring many different possibilities in the "garden". We know children only learn when they feel something is safe, sometimes it takes a grown-up who is willing to get a little dirty!
The children of course had great ideas for furthering their investigations and play in the "garden". One wanted to add rocks, and another thought it would be smart to add our plants! As usual the children show us that we cannot be too rigid in our thinking to keep things separate. They often have more creativity and are able to see how things should be connected easier than we adults do!
This was such a fun interaction between student, material, teacher, and parent! J. wanted to investigate the spray bottle. Mom carefully set about showing him how to do it, however when the nozzle pointed at him, she warned him what might happen. He decided (with a little prodding by me) to experiment and sure enough got a very wet spray bottle kiss in the face!
Clearly, he was not upset by this revelation!
I didn't capture a picture of some of the other children noticing this interaction, but they did. I think the other children seeing J.'s positive attitude towards investigation will rub off!
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