9am Wonder Science

What is a Studio? What is the Wonder Studio?

How is a studio different than a classroom?

How does the studio environment facilitate learning?

I believe that learning for the young child (and big kids too!) happens when he or she is in motion.

In creating a "studio" environment, my goal is to create an environment that invites the children to be in motion, explore, and investigate. In addition, I intend to create a place for adults to think about their child's "thinking".

A classroom might imply to some that the teacher is the director of the learning.

When I hear the word "studio", I think about all of the participants being the director of his/her own learning.

A place of research for all who go there.

New ideas are welcome and valued!

A place where we can question our children and ourselves. We can think about what good questions are. We can observe our children and wonder how we can challenge their ideas and see how their ideas sometimes challenge us.

In looking at the pictures on this blog, I ask that both the adults and children revisit the experiences and rethink what we might have said, done, explored, and investigated. We use the pictures as a memory to challenge our perspective on the child's (and adult's) experience.

A set up of grass seed invites children to work individually but with the possibility of working side by side. Toddlers can get side-tracked and feel threatened when asked to share (sometimes)... so our goal is to provide a safe place to investigate but with the opportunity for them to practice these skills as well as observe one another's investigations.

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."

-William Butler Yeats

I love to document with the camera, the child's ability to co-construct his/her own learning.

A sequence of events that gives us some insight or a "picture" into the child's desire to make their own meaning. These 2 boys are playing in the water table along side of one another. At first they don't seem to notice one another's explorations but this quickly changes.
W. holds the funnel with one hand (standing at the corner of the water table) and uses a cup to pour water through it. He holds it up high in order to maximize his view of the water exiting the funnel.

The other boy (S.) is not looking at W. and is exploring some of the other possibilities of the water table materials.
W. repeats his earlier action with the funnel and cup. But this time, you see (barely) that S. has taken notice of W.'s investigations.
I see he is looking for a cup like W.'s and I quickly hand him one. Then I see him struggle to hold both the funnel and cup. He clearly wants to figure it out. I offer him his mother's assistance (so I can take pictures). She holds the funnel and he pours the water through.
Each time he pours the water through the tunnel, he observes the results of his actions, and he smiles and laughs. His mother and myself also react with smiles and laughing because it is so joyful to watch his success.

Then he stands in the corner of the water table and is now able to manipulate the funnel, cup, and water by himself. He repeats this action again and again.

Did we provide the proper support? How could we challenge his thinking on the funnel next week. What is he investigating? Is he thinking about the water taking the shape of the funnel? Is he interested in the water starting off in a big shape and fitting through the tube at the bottom?

Target Ball:

The children are invited to build towers, then knock them down with a ball.

The children are able to experiment with how their swing affects the path of the ball.

This game enables the child to construct an understanding of the correspondence among his/her actions, the actions of the ball, and the resulting action of the target.

p.81

-The Young Child as Scientist

Chaille and Britain