A lesson from Jeremy's Grampa's house

"... I have observed over and over again that young children who are intellectually engaged in worthwhile investigations, begin to ask for help in using academic skills- for example, writing and counting,-in the service of their intellectual goals.” ~ Lillian Katz

With all this discussion on how children learn, I thought you might want to see what it would look like in action. Below is a section from a book I am working on. In this letter, the director is writing to her lifelong mentor about an experience that happened in one of her 4 year old classrooms.

Dear Marci,

Wow, what a month! Mrs. W.’s class had a true emergent learning experience! From the initial interest right down to the documentation, every step was beautifully done! You are going to love this.

Jeremy Booker came back from winter break and told everyone about photos he found at his Grampa’s house. He brought one in for us. Turns out they were photos of the Northern Lights. The children started to get very excited about the idea of Northern Lights (since that’s the name of our school) and started talking all at once. Most of the children didn’t have any past experiences to draw from, but Leah told the class that her daddy saw the lights, too, before she was in mommy’s tummy. At this point, both Mrs. W. and her assistant Kaycee decided that this could be a pretty interesting course of study. Kaycee started writing things she overheard the children say in class, and Mrs. W. went straight to the reference library for some books. She shared the book Northern Lights A to Z by Mindy Dwyer. Afterwards, she asked for the “what do you know’. Here’s some of what they told her:

• It’s not really lights, but stars
• God colors them in before they fall
• They took the name from the school’s name (loved that one!)
• The clouds hold them until its time
• They are really rain
• Sometimes its purple or green or blue but never black. Black is nighttime.

Then Mrs. W. dropped the subject, and she and Kaycee simply watched the children over the next few hours. Jeremy took the book and began comparing the illustrations to the photo he’d brought.

Several of the children started to draw or paint their interpretation of the lights. Kaycee overheard the children talking about the lights in both the block area and dramatic play.

Based upon what she observed, Mrs. W. determined there was enough interest to continue the study. Emailing the staff and parents, she shared what happened, and asked for any ideas they might have. (yep, she asked the parents for ideas. I LOVE her! )

Then so many cool things happened:

The next day Mrs. W. brought in some flashlights. She showed them to the children and asked how they how they would like to use them. After they played with the on/off button for what seemed like forever, the children began to have questions. They wanted to know if they could make the beam of light that came from the flashlight a color other than white. They began to experiment by covering the light part with construction paper, paint, and tissue paper.

Devon’s dad brought in a telescope, which added an interest in looking at the sky. Some of the children wanted to make their own telescopes, so that became the next little project. Mrs. W. encouraged them to draw out their plans before building them, so the children designed their telescopes first. Their drawings were incredibly detailed.

The teachers decided that this would be a great time to observe and support the children’s play. They put aside their lesson plans and became facilitators. For example, in the block center, some of the boys were building a tower. They were focused on making it as high as possible. At one point, they had pulled a chair out and were about to stand on it. Kaycee asked them if they needed her help and they announced that they wanted to make their “ladder” bigger and take it outside so they could touch the lights when  they come back around. Building stopped while they discussed how far the sun and the sky were from the school. When the children determined that there were not enough blocks left in the room to make the ladder reach the sky, and that the ceiling was going to get in their way, they decided to go just try and make the ladder as long as they could. They took the project into the hall, and continued building!

Jeremy’s mom came in and explained that the lights are not really lights but particles from the sun that get trapped in the magnetic energy when they fall near the earth. The children were surprised that particles meant dust, and began speculating how the sun gets dust on it. “Is rain when the sun takes a tubby?” Great question!

Leah’s dad’s story made quite an impression on the children. He explained that he saw the lights when he was living in Montana, (which took the children on a little side study of the U.S. map.) He told them shared that he was walking down the street one night and was surprised by the lights up above. He said it looked like God was shaking a blanket of color over the sky. Someone asked him if he took a picture and he told them no but that he would remember it in his heart forever. Wow. Mrs. W. said the children simply stared at him and nodded their heads in understanding. After he left, some of the boys started showing each other how to shake a blanket to make the colors wave. Jason began making up stories of what he would do if he was walking all alone down the street. (Gotta love how some kids see different perspectives of a story!)

Prompted by this story, children wanted to make blankets of color. The weaving tool, which hardly gets any use, became a staple in the classroom, and we actually had to buy more loops!

Kaycee showed a few children that if they punched holes in a black sheet of construction paper and lifted it to the light, it looked a little like the night sky. This new idea was a winner with several children who practiced hole punching and scissor cutting. One child cut out a large portion of the black paper and decided to lay it on top of green paper to make the colored sky. All the children were excited about this and began to replicate her idea.

Leah’s mom brought in some crepe paper, and the children told Kaycee how to arrange it on the ceiling to make the colors “shake”.

One of the little girls asked if birds could get hurt when this happened….wow! Another question that needed research… (P.S. No.)

Teachers took and posted photos every day. They ran a slideshow on their computer so the children could revisit them whenever they wanted. They also put posters with some of the photos and representations along the hallway by their classroom so that rest of the school could share in their learning.

Marci, This process of discovery has gone on for almost 4 weeks! The classroom and the hallways look like an astronomy museum. There are paintings and drawings created with fingerpaints, paint brushes, crayons, markers, Qtips, and marbles. One child decided to use string to replicate the strands of light. The other teachers are now interested in doing this with their class. There’s a different, more powerful excitement around here! I think some people just needed to see it in order to believe it could. I am thrilled to bits. Can’t wait to see what happens next!