A lifelong learner: Saturday Class

 I often make plans for The Wonder Studio...


Flubber...


Spin Art...

 Splatter Painting...

 Clay...

 Worms...

 What is my goal for these materials?

 An important question! 

What is the difference between:  
planning for POSSIBILITIES 
and 
planning for GOALS?

 Planning for possibilities allows for deviation in the use of the materials that are offered.  These deviations indicate to the "player" that they are the Protagonist in their learning experience.


So the materials are used in ways that are unique to that child's learning disposition.  

 Sometimes children are craving a social  learning experience... so they want to work in the same Oobleck container with another child...Trying out each other's ideas, sharing tools, learning about another's perspective.



Sometimes the child is feeling more introspective and wants to take an oobleck container off to the side and explore it's properties without distractions.

 I can't hear what the child is thinking and young children don't always voice aloud their thoughts...


But I can infer that they might be thinking:




What will happen if I squirt a little colored water onto this powder?


What will happen if I squirt this whole bottle?


Am I able to focus long enough to squirt a whole bottle?



Oh, look at that!  It's feels hard now!


But when I pick it up in my hands, It begins to get soft... It's dripping...



I wonder why it does that?


How can I do that again?


I need to figure this out...




Sometimes grown ups are uncomfortable when a Mess inevitably results from these types of investigations...


They limit the child's thinking by offering a recipe... Mix one cup of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water, stir, and mix...


They steal the child's curiosity by offering big words and explanations... oobleck is a non-newtonian fluid called a Dilatant.  Meaning it has properties of both a liquid and a solid. 



 
In the world of PLAY...


If we encourage our own agenda, the child never discovers his own.


So that, I guess, is my goal...


To Play!


And if the play is really good...


there is no goal...


Because there is no End in site.


If your goal is to have a Lifelong learner, maybe this is the recipe!