SOLSC #19: How many different voices?

I am participating in the
March 2018 Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC).
All participants are writing about one moment, one part of their day, every day for thirty-one days.

A big thank you to Two Writing Teachers for providing this unique opportunity

for teacher-writers to share and reflect.

A long, demanding day with so many facets. What teacher hasn't had that strange sensation of being in so many places at once, where you are present with a small group of students but thinking about the upcoming family conference or interrupted by an administrative task or challenged by someone's behavior?

I keep a school journal beside me at all times during the day, to capture data, anecdotes, and important things I've heard and want to remember. It's late in the day and I haven't written a slice, so I thought it might be interesting to capture fragments from today's journal notes... showing how many pivots a teaching day has...how I volley between adults and preschoolers, between coaching, teaching, collaborating, conferencing, connecting...always so much going on. Here are those scraps of notes from my journal -

Can be a toxic emotion in a classroom.
Create chart of student assignments for Intersession
"I painted, and you know what we painted with? Apples!"
"Those go like this, and those turn, and they fall down, and some balls flip...it's going to be the awesome way!"
"It's a rock cross. Step, step, step - and you don't fall in. Come, follow me."
"Can we have a ramp contest and see whose goes down?"
love of learning
Are you just going through the motions? What are you feeling?
Structure creates safety.
Paying attention to the internal state of the teacher.
Professional development - worst ones are ineffective use of time, best ones are stimulating, interactive, thought-provoking
As Fred Rogers says, 'You'll always find someone who's trying to help.'


Yes, this is fragmented. Which is how I feel this Monday evening, fragmented. Wooh. Four more days until spring break!

Tuesday SOL Are birds teachers?

This is a Tuesday
Slice of Life.
All participants are writing about one moment, one part of their day. 

Check out the Two Writing Teachers website for many more reflections on teaching.

Even though the school year has drawn to a close, I feel compelled to share about the children's bird exploration during May and June. It is a great example of a child-initiated project. My Teaching Resident (Ms. Keynes) noted, embraced, and encouraged the topic. I love seeing teachers build on children's interests and it is particularly delightful when it is a novice teacher who partakes in this challenge.

I love teaching in a school that allows me the flexibility to pursue topics that 'bubble up' from the children. It's true, we didn't know at the outset of the school year that we would focus on birds in the spring, but I knew that I could trust the children to be excited and eager to learn about something - there is always room for inquiry. This is the beauty of emergent curriculum, where children's own interests are the precursor and foundation of topics studied. Preschoolers are innate scientists - curious, observant, and persistent. Dare to pursue what is in their hearts! Why teach any other way?

Where did the interest begin and where did it lead?

I think the first hint of curiosity began with children excitedly sharing at a morning gathering about having seen our local eagle cam with their families. This camera provided live action of two baby eagles in the National Arboretum. Ms. Keynes decided to set up the eagle cam at the writing center, with markers and paper for children to draw their observations. We wondered - what would the children do? Would this interest them? Yes! The children worked feverishly in this area, watching the screen and making detailed drawings. The eagle cam became a daily part of our centers time. Here are just a few of the children's drawings:

Observational Drawing by RW

Observational Drawing by DE

Observational Drawing by GR

Observational Drawing by AH

Observational Drawing by NB

Observational Drawing by CB

Observational Drawing by CD

There was great conversation as children worked on these observational drawings. For example, 

NB - "Eagles fly - they fly everywhere around the sky. They land to get some food. They eat leaves."

EM - "Look at the eagle. He's eating the nest. He's eating. He's sleeping. He's eating in the nest. He's silly. They are in the bird's nest."

HF - "What does the eagle eat? I think he eats worms. No, I think he eats mice. Yes, I think he eats rats! They are very yummy."

CD - "I think they eat poop."

KA - "He's looking down at the birdie. He sees the birdie. I think they are brothers. And now he's looking behind himself. The birdie is kinda like the teacher - he's looking right at us."

That may be my favorite line:

The birdie is kinda like the teacher - he's looking right at us.

Doesn't that show the value of children being encouraged to draw what they see, to note the details?


With this obvious engagement, we delved into the study of birds, with a particular focus on eagles. Ms. Keynes asked, what do you know about birds and what do you wonder?

I was impressed with their beginning knowledge:

• They have wings,
• They fly,
• They sleep in a nest,
• They like to sit in the nest,
• They are in the nest not on the ground,
• They lay eggs in the nest,
• The nests are made of mud, hay, straw, and even bird spit 
• They will scare away anyone who tries to get the eggs
• They have tails,
• They have beaks,
• They eat fish, 
• They peck their way out of the egg,
• There are lots of different birds, like eagles, robins, owls, seagulls, penguins
• Eagles nests are the biggest
• Eagles have big wings
• Eagles' babies don't wear diapers

The children about a variety of things:

• How do they make nests? 
• How do they make the nests soft?
• How do they sleep in the nest?
• How many eggs do they lay?
• How many days until they learn to fly?
• How big is an eagle's poop?

We began to learn everything we could. Families pitched in, too. One family shared beautiful color photos of baby robins emerging from their eggs. Another brought in a beautiful nest that they had found. 

Children often arrived at school with stories to share -

AS - "Ms. Ingram, do you know when I was on my way to school, we were walking out of my car, I saw a robin's egg! It was small and it was blue and it was broken. I wanted to pick it up and show it to you."

LM - "I saw a bird that was so dead. Only had one leg. Even the skin was gone. It only had a beak! I saw it."

Scientists observe the details, yes they do.

Ms. Keynes taped off a circle on our gathering carpet that was the same size as an eagle's nest (these average 4-5 feet in diameter, with one in Florida being 9.5 feet!). We gathered here each day for several weeks during our bird exploration - reading books, having class meetings, and doing lots of dramatic play.

These little birdies are hanging outside their nest!

We attempted to 'engineer' a nest out of the base of a box, using lots of yarn and tape. (I loved how the children insisted on wearing goggles while creating this.)

Mo Willems' Pigeon loves our nest.

When the nest was done, children nudged further - "Birds like soft places. When are we going to put eggs in?" They delighted in creating individual "eagle eggs" out of papier mache.

Painting a round surface is challenging work!

One morning, our question of the day was "Who has the bigger wingspan - you or an eagle?" Many children insisted that they had the bigger wingspan, which made each of us teachers smile. We had each of the children lay down on the carpet and get measured against an eagle's wingspan (6 feet average), to provide a clear visual of the difference. The children also made a pair of paper wings that matched their personal measurement.

How big is my wingspan, compared to an eagle's?

One day on the playground, AM came running up to me with the excited words, "Look! A beautiful feather!" and when I looked at what she held, I saw that it was much more than this - she had a bird's wing in her hand, still attached to some of its bony torso. Oh my! Clearly this bird had been on the losing end of a predator's attack, perhaps a cat or a hawk. I tried my very best to remain level-headed and cool, although I was immediately squeamish. I wanted to encourage this budding scientist. I had her show me where she was when she discovered this "feather" and, finding no other bird parts in the area, we went inside the classroom to find a clear jar for displaying this find in our science center. Her classmate LM was delighted with this new addition, declaring "Whoa! Good Find!"

Later, AM said she wanted to share a story about what she found and so I wrote down her words:

"I want to write about the feather that I found, about the bird that I found. I found it on the playground. I put it in the jar. I don't know what kind of bird it was from. Maybe, it was a sister bird. I like that the outside was soft. I can't wait to show my Mommy. I'm going to tell my Daddy that I found a bird's feather that had bones in it. I don't know what my Daddy's going to say about the bird feather. Maybe my Daddy will say "Whoa, good find!," like LM said. I think the birdie died, cause it can't fly with just one wing; cause without part of his body, he can't be alive anymore. The End"


We didn't resolve every wonder that the children had at the outset of our bird exploration...and many more wonders appeared as we explored. The work of scientists goes on and on. Yes, the children worked like scientists, finding much beauty and intrigue in our world. Birds are teachers.

What did we do for the Phillips this year?

This week, we are celebrating the conclusion of our arts integration project with the Phillips Collection. The children worked very hard throughout the month of February on this effort. I thought I'd share some photos and documentation of their work, so that you might see the fun that they had.

Though in previous years, our work has been displayed for a few weeks at the Phillips (in their basement level educational wing), this year our school's population has grown too large for the Phillips to display all these works. As a result, the preschool classes and several other grades will not be included in this exhibit; however, we will display our work at our school's Learning Showcase later this month. When I first heard this plan (last summer), I was disappointed. I have enjoyed working with the children to create art pieces for the Phillips display - typically, the whole class works together to create 2 or 3 panels. (I've blogged about these efforts in previous years.) Over time, I realized, there are some real benefits to this new plan - hey, I'm not limited to 2 or 3 panels! I can take up as much space as I want…we can create any type of art that we desire!

So, what did we create? Let me share.

First, did a field trip to the Phillips…the big thrill being the ride on the yellow school bus.

At the Phillips, we did a couple of art activities...on the floor, in front of masterpieces of art. I love this. Preschoolers in an art museum! The children's (and my) favorite activity this year was related to George Braque's painting Round Table.  This painting depicted many different objects grouped on a table. 

The children were given paper versions of their own Round Table, and separate pieces representing the objects that they were free to place on their table. This was an ideal lesson for young children, allowing them hands-on work. 

We teachers realized that the children share Braque's fascination and love of  the physicality of objects. We decided to create art with this masterpiece in mind.

It is not enough to make people see the object you paint. You must also make them touch it.—Georges Braque (1882–1963)

In our preschool classroom, we work a lot with found objects and recyclables. We love to imagine and re-purpose small, inconsequential things from our homes in many different projects. The children love touching, exploring, counting, sorting, painting, and creating with these found objects.

Additionally, we are crazy about storytelling. In recent weeks, for our read-alouds, we have been immersed in folktales and fairy tales. I often dramatize parts of the books with children (they love to use their bodies - and I know this movement helps them recall the story), I have many felt board and other story pieces for them to re-tell the tale, and I often use story "containers" with small figures and objects to represent the story. The children have become very interested in "characters" and beginning, middle, end of stories. Of course, I also work with the children on their own stories - "How does your story begin?"

All these curriculum tangents were pouring through my mind as I searched for a Phillips artwork idea. Then, of all things, a friend gave me some coffee cans she had saved...imagine this, she had 21 to share with me! Exactly the right amount for each child to create something special...

So, for our Phillips artwork, the preschoolers created story cans, with clay characters and special found objects from our classroom collection.

We spent several weeks creating a decoupage exterior for the cans... a process that involved a great deal of trial and error. For example, the preschoolers spent several mornings cutting out small pieces and images of scrap book jackets. Then, it was time to glue these onto the cans. It turns out, it was nearly impossible for the children to adhere glossy, heavyweight scraps to a cylindrical metal surface. I stepped in to help them and I couldn't do it myself. I began to wonder if I had imagined the very worst project idea. But, of course, I'm all about modeling persistence....

We used a variety of other special papers - tissue papers, cut up easel paintings, and even created special effects on old newspapers and discarded scraps of paper by dipping them in watercolor paint.

We layered the papers around the sides of the can, over and over, using lots of glue.

Our decoupage work became an on-going center in the classroom for several weeks...children worked on their cans whenever they desired, as much as they liked.

With our cans complete, it was time to think about our individual stories. What objects would represent the stories the best? The preschoolers searched through the found objects, trying to find five treasures that would fit into the can. 

I also introduced Model Magic for the children to create characters - though, in the end, I wasn't excited by the quality of these figures...the 'clay' was not easy for the children to mold (sometimes, it seemed to spring out of the desired shape); the final 'air dried' pieces broke quite easily. But, the children had no complaints...they loved working with this clay.

Ms. Kim worked with each student individually, listening to their story and writing it down. This week, at Storytime, in addition to our daily book read-aloud, we are sharing the children's own stories from their story cans. This has been very special.

To help you imagine the final artwork, here is one story can. This one is made by Ellis. 

And here is Ellis' story:

His name is George (clay). He is a monster. The monster put the girl (blue) in a tank (yellow). He put them into the trap (purple). He trapped him with a rope. Then, then, there was  four monsters coming. Then the mommy didn’t ask because he didn’t have mommy. So, so he just came out. Then he asked his mommy for help. Then, then the monster put him in a trap. Then the monster’s mouth broke. He force him away so he couldn’t get passed. So, so, so he just put the girl out of here. He just put them in a jail. The girl is made out of the glass. So, he, he putted in then. He didn’t get stuck. Um, so, he (blue) just put it in like but he couldn’t because he didn’t fit. So, so it just got away but he couldn’t because he was just made out of the glass. So it was squeezy but he couldn’t get out so he went out so he get passed. Bristick came to help. Then then he smashed in then cut it out. That was a good idea. And he took him to his mom.

I'll share all of the children's work in another post...but, I thought it was important to share one here so that my description of the story cans made sense. I know it is a rather unique "artwork" - a far cry from a painted panel, such as my previous preschool classes have made. But, I love that the children will each go home with their own individual treasure. I think it is exciting that our art is "repurposed," taking something and changing it. The story cans are each so 'robust', so 'sturdy' - I see the children filling and re-filling these cans with special stories for years to come. 

I love how much work they put into these!

Let's write a baby book

Our beloved principal is expecting twins. At our staff meeting last week, we threw her a baby shower and presented her with special books created by every class. Each of these books was so sweet!

For our book, the Big Cats created watercolor paintings with black ink drawings. I asked each preschooler the simple question,
Why do you love babies?

Since this book was a gift, I wasn't able to send the children's artwork home…so, I made sure to take photos of each page. Here's what our book looked like:

Why We Love Babies

by the 

Preschool Big Cats

January 2015

"I love playing with babies." (Ellis)

"I know they are in the tummy." (Evan)

"Babies make me very, very happy. And I love how babies cry." (Naima)

"Mommy holds the baby when it goes 'WAAH!' " (Jackson)

"Sometimes they'll be happy, sometimes they'll be sad." (Ella)

"Babies, Mommy." (Rowan)

"I don't love babies. I love superheroes." (Nicky)

"Babies cry." (Wesley)

"I love that Moms hold them. I love baby dolls." (Paxton)

"I don't love babies. I love boats and crabs and big spider crabs." (Julian)

"I love babies 'cause they are cute and I love to hold them." (Luke)

"I love princess babies." (Kaelyn)

"I can hug them." (Jinyu)

"I love babies' shoes." (James)

"I love to feed her." (Simona)

"I love babies crawling." (Dmitry)

"I want to see them try to walk." (Malcolm)

"I love babies walking." (Micah)

"Babies like to play with big children all the time." (Avery)

"I like to hug them." (Katherine)

"I love babies." (Henry)

The End

What about our water investigations?

This is a Tuesday "Slice of Life" for Two Writing Teachers. Check out their website for lots more reflections on teaching.

*******

I thought I'd make this a "throwback Tuesday" - and share about the fun I had this past May with documenting the children's water investigations...I meant to do this many weeks ago, before the school year ended. Why not take a summer morning to share?



This past spring, I participated in an educator's open house at School Within School (SWS), a D.C. public school that is Reggio Emilia inspired. Here, Principal John Burst offered this nugget of wisdom about the school's beliefs:

If it is not documented, it didn't happen.

My understanding is SWS teachers are careful to observe students at work, and create real-time notes and displays about their work, which serves to

• inform the teachers as to what the children are thinking, questioning, considering, and 
• extend the curiosity and motivation of the children, as they see their work valued and respected through this documentation. 

Obviously, a 'win-win' - curriculum and learning can only get deeper and more meaningful with this kind of engagement.

I really wanted to try this - what would it be like to document for and with the children? - not simply for myself and their families (as I do through this blog), but real-time, on-going, "let's see what we are learning" note-taking for the children to see.

Our school follows a graduated release of teaching responsibilities, and by the end of the school year, the Resident is developing the curriculum and leading the class. My Teaching Resident, Melissa, was leading a water investigation unit. I realized that this was the perfect opportunity for me to try my hand at documenting - I was already in the supportive role of stepping back and observing, now I would take photos and notes and create an on-going, real-time record of the children's exploration.

What am I documenting?
I focused on the students "wonderings" - What were their questions? What were they curious about? What did they want to know more about?
I also focused on the teacher's goals - What did Melissa want to emphasize? What was the purpose of the activity? Why is it worth doing?

One of the very first actions we took - creating a space for the documentation to be seen. We covered the front wall of our classroom with black banner paper, hanging an orange sign "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" at one end and entitling it "Our Water Investigations." Both children and families watched this documentation grow over many weeks, which sparked many conversations about the children's learning.

To jumpstart our water exploration, we walked to Meridian Park and collected water samples from its reflecting pool.

We talked about the waters we collected. How do they look? What do we see? Is this water clean? May we drink it? How did the water get in the pond?

The students shared their wonderings about water – How do you know pond water is dirty?

It’s muddy!

There are ants!

Sticks!

My Daddy says so!

You might get sick!

The students were adamant that the water was for ducks, fish, and turtles to drink but not for us.

How did the water get in the pond? How is this water different from the water we drink? From other waters?

How can we make the pond water clean? 

The students also showed an interest in drains. 

“Water goes down drains!”

“There is a drain in the pond.”

“There is a drain in my bathtub.”

The water investigations incorporated all senses, all learning styles. Often during Gathering, Melissa would introduce various water topics to the whole group, spotlighting a specific experiment that would she would lead that day. In whole group, we did a lot of dramatic play. For example, the children traveled – via dramatic play – to a rainforest, ocean,  and waterfalls, imagining each of these environments. We even danced in [pretend] rain. We recreated the sounds of a rain storm using our hands, thighs, and vocals. 

(I loved how this dramatic play fun provoked the children to wonder aloud. They wondered about animals that live in these environments – wanting to know more about sharks, squids, dolphins, clams, alligators, fish, sea horses, and whales. They also wonder about waves – Where do they come from? Why do they crash onto the shore?)

Here's the playful way Melissa introduced the concept of filtering at whole group -
As provocation, Melissa presented a container of water that was filled with all sorts of debris –leaves, dirt, even some cardboard. She whipped out her toothbrush and suggested that she was going to brush her teeth with this water. This playful provocation led to many loud, vocal responses – “No! That water is dirty! It is nasty!”

How do you know? What is wrong with this water? Why can’t I use it? What can we do to make it cleaner?

Several students were adamant that the easiest and quickest way was to “pour that water out and get a new container from the sink.”

Melissa persisted – “How can we make this water cleaner? What can we do to this water?” Then, she showed the water filter that is in our own classroom drinking water container. “Let’s investigate water filters!”

*****

Over the course of several weeks, during centers, Melissa worked with students in small groups. The children filtered water, separated mixtures, examined buoyancy, studied dissolution, and observed melting, learning a great deal about water properties. The children worked like scientists, developing hypotheses and testing these. 


They observed water in clear cups - What do we see? Feel? Smell? Hear? Taste?

The students explored water mixtures with found objects (bottle caps, corks, metal pieces, rocks, beads) and food coloring. This lead directly to students wondering about “sink or float” – and continued experimentation with found objects. What sinks? What floats? Why? What is different? What is the same?

Melissa wanted to introduce the children to the scientific process. Let me highlight one experiment - on dissolution. The teaching goal: Students will be able to predict, test, and observe what happens when water is mixed with another substance. 

They were particularly interested in the process of dissolving. Several mornings were spent mixing, stirring, and shaking a variety of materials into water. We used oil, food color, salt, cinnamon, pepper flakes, sand, and oatmeal.

What happens? Does the material disappear? Does it grow? Does it simply swirl about? Does it sink? Does it float? Why might that be? What kinds of substances and materials dissolve in water and which ones don’t?

For each experiment, students created a simple hypothesis. For example, do you predict this [salt, pepper, cinnamon, etc.] will dissolve in water? The students signed their name in the column that matched their prediction. [These children are developing excellent pre-literacy skills.] Then, the children would experiment with the materials and re-evaluate their original hypothesis. 

I was fascinated by how completing the hypothesis seemed to increase the children's engagement in the process itself - they wanted to repeat the experiment over and over, testing the results. 


*****

Tell Me About Your Water Investigation

As children completed an experiment, we further challenged them to

1) Retell their work to a teacher

2) Write/draw what they did

3) Attach their findings to the “science boat”

Let me share just a few ...

Shaan

“We did water experiments. We need, we use. Water, see the water. And other materials. Sand and shells, rice, water, hot pepper, brown thing with sugar mixed up in there. That’s about it – that’s what they’re using. You mix and you get to put your hands in there and that’s about it.”

Caroline

          “We tested if it is going to disappear or not, but the salt disappeared. Then we did the sand and we thought the sand would, but I thought the sand would not disappear, and it didn’t! And we did pepper after that, and the pepper didn’t disappear either so what came after the pepper? Rice, then I thought the rice wouldn’t disappear and it didn’t disappear still. So we got cups and tried different materials, I used a sponge and then I used some of the brown stuff, I mean the coffee holder and they took some of the sticks out then I tried the paper towel and it took only one stick out.”

Julian

“I did water yesterday. At the time, too spicy and then it turned into pepper. I did a little bit. I put a little bit of salt and a little bit of sand and then the rice came down. The sand disappeared. The salt was empty.”

Micaela

“The first thing we tested out was the salt. And we did a lot of investigations. So it really dissolved. But the other thing we tested was the sugar but when we mixed it up, it did dissolve. And the third thing we tried dissolving was sticks. We tried and tried and tried and tried the sticks, but they were not dissolving. So we tried an investigation and tried rice and it didn’t dissolve. Then the sand didn’t dissolve. And then there was one more thing. I think that’s it.”

Bernie

“I liked the first one. Sink or float. We used sponges; no, no sponges, actually. We used an apple in the first one, an orange in the first one, and a key in the first one. I can’t remember any other things we used. We were trying to see if it would sink or float. The key I told you about, that sunk. We used a key there and it sunk. We used cork and it floated. And, of course, a top floated. Two corks and two tops floated.”

Lavinia

“I was trying to filter the water that I put the dirty stuff inside. I got the water bottle and then I first put sponges and then I put all the dirty water inside. Any of it went through but the yucky stuff didn’t go through.”

*****

Over the six weeks of this unit exploration, there were water-related activities throughout the room, whether sensory table, blocks, dramatic play, books. At the writing center, the children practiced emergent writing and recall through written reflections on their experiments. We created a large "Word Wall" of new vocabulary from our experimentation. Preschoolers considered how words are spelled, sounding out the word and predicting its first and subsequent letters. 


(We observed students using advanced language, including dissolve, evaporate, disintegrate, investigate, melting, hypothesis, experiment, and predict.) We are cultivating an awareness about words, growing our vocabulary, enhancing our pre-literacy skills. We are cultivating writers!

In the art area, we created a large boat out of cardboard. We painted with watercolors. We painted a large ocean mural, creating our own sea creatures for the display. 

In the dramatic play area, we dressed as scientists, wearing goggles and holding magnifying glasses. When the boat was completed, we played on the "USS Big Cats" (and we posted our scientific findings on this boat).



Through several table-top games, we challenged the children's mathematical understandings. Melissa created one based on the Dr. Seuss’ story One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish – Children match a numeric fish to a particular pond. There were also many extensions/variations to this game, involving counting and quantifying – How many fish total are in your pond? Can you collect fish numbered one to ten for your pond?

Creating a boat in the block corner.

·      

Of course, we had some engineering fun: 

1. Who Sank the Boat? by Pamela Allen

Our challenge was to build a boat that could support five animals [5 counting bears], using our recyclables and tape. [In order to encourage more successful creations, we added corks and aluminum foil to our basic supplies of egg cartons, paper towel rolls, plastic lids, etc.]

2. Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing by April Jones Prince

Our challenge was to construct a bridge out of recyclables that was strong enough to support five toy elephants.

Both boats and bridges were tested at the water table.

    *****

Each day, the children were filled with inquiry and wonder. Consider their words when Melissa set up an exploration of ice within oil:   

“It will dissolve because the ice will make it dissolve. The oil might do it, too. All the ice will turn to red. The oil will turn yellow, too, if it can dissolve.” (Seymour)

“The ice is breaking because I am breaking it with spoon.” (Shaan)

“It will turn into yellow because it’s oil.” (Evan)

“It will probably dissolve, because it might and it my jar. Maybe it is going to melt when I mix, because it going to get mixed with some ice.” (Charlie)

“I think it will dissolve and melt. It will melt, because....” (Eloise)

“It will disappear because the ice is so heavy.” (Lavinia)

“It’s going to dissolve and disintegrate because it will melt really fast because it has ice in it.” (Ian)

“It will dissolve because it will do everything because it will dissolve in real ice water. Sometime when I look at ice, it doesn’t dissolve and sometimes I know it will.” (Jasmine)

“It will mix...I think it will mix and then it will pop [the ice].” (Nico)

“It’s going to melt because warm melts cold.” (Helen)

“I think it’s gong to melt since because I think the oil is going to eat up the ice. It turns darker when I put red in it.” (Bernie)

  

“It will get a little drippy, it’s going to melt because ice is made out of water.” (Caroline)

“It might turn into a different color because it might evaporate the color...Inside is hot.” (Zuren)

“I think it will turn blue...I think the ice is going to melt.” (Micaela)

“It’s going to turn pink, because I love pink.” (Lily)

“It will turn green because the ice is kind of green.” (Amelie)

“ I got green ice and dark green water and the ice got smaller and smaller, it melt.” (Ellie)

“Maybe the oil is gone, it turns green because it’s black. The ice melts when water comes out.” (Julian)

Exploring evaporation by painting walls with water.

My foray into documenting children's on-going work about water certainly showed the wisdom of John Burst's quote:

If it is not documented, it didn't happen.

Because we were documenting, lots happened!! Melissa's original unit plan was for approximately three weeks of lessons. However, the children became so engaged in their exploration, we ended up spending more than six weeks on this unit. I believe the children's engagement was magnified by seeing their teachers' investment in the value of their work - as shown in our on-going construction of the documentation wall. When the children arrived at school in the morning, they would stop and look at the documentation and begin asking questions (a frequent question was - Can we do this experiment again?). 

We hadn't changed the way the classroom was structured or our daily routine; the room was still filled with individual choice and hands-on learning. What had changed, however, was the children's focus - documentation helped to highlight and delineate specific aspects of the learning and seemed to give the children a clearer sense of purpose to their play. They are thinking like scientists!

I have no doubt that documenting our work helped to make our teaching stronger, offering clarity to both Melissa and me, helping us to plan better for the children's interests, spotlighting where our teaching was going well, and indicating what needed to change. 

Additionally, the documenting was a wonderful conversation starter for families, giving them a clearer idea of what their children were exploring and enjoying during the school day.

Now I am wrestling with 

How might I document on-going learning on a regular basis, not just at the end of the school year, when my Resident is leading the teaching?

Lots to think about!