When children have a say in their learning......

S.B brought in some pieces of foam and wooden skewers he thought the class would like to use to make things with. 

We set up a space for the materials and during our Investigations time several children made various creations. 

E.M., M.D., and R.F. made a cat (complete with a food and water dish).

R.H. made a tractor. But this wasn't just any tractor, it was "a dirty, old, rusty tractor" (what great descriptive language!)

S.B. and J.T made hockey sticks and a puck (and of course they had to try them out!)

When it was time for recess S.B wanted to keep working on his fish. We asked him what he would need outside to keep working and helped him set up his outdoor workspace. 

    

This activity supported the math geometry curriculum of constructing three-dimensional structures using a variety of materials. The students presented their creations to the class. Some chose to write about them. We had rich discussions with the students about what kind of design problems they ran into in making their creations (i.e. the legs of the cat kept falling off) and what different strategies they used to solve the problem. We were also able to assess the different types of planning strategies used by the children (i.e. some looked at the pieces of foam and decided what the shapes reminded them of, others came up with a plan first and then cut the foam pieces accordingly). All of this rich learning came out of student interest. Mrs. Bell and I had not planned on this center, but we adjusted our plans to make space for this learning. This is a great example of the learning that can take place when children feel that their ideas are important and will be respected and listened to.