Our small groups have met together once again, this time discussing ideas of how we might find some information to all of our questions.
Asking good questions takes practiced skill and seeking information is another skill one fine-tunes over time. It’s interesting to note the various ways individuals chose to seek the information they need. Children naturally find an array of ways to seek information. As children, we are designed for it! From investigating books, asking “the grown-ups” or even asking each other we find out information. Children are also naturally drawn to hands-on exploration, hence our value as a play-based program. Play is work is an expression you often hear in thinking about preschool-aged children. From spontaneous investigations of discoveries in nature to testing ideas such as if I do this (stack the blocks and then push on one side) will this happen (they fall over but curious, how did they fall that way?)
It’s from this curious mind-set that we once again gathered our small groups and wondered aloud with them,
“How are we going to find out information to our questions?”
We learn much as we witness how the individuals in these small groups interact with one another and what they share in the way of their thinking…
"Me" Small Group
“And I wanted to learn about the brain.” -Spencer
“I have a couple more. Feet! How do you walk?” -Maddy
“Cause of your knees…and your brain! Cause the brain does anything. It makes it happen.” -Callen
“I mean, I’m interested in like bodies…in skeletons!” -Britton
Okay, so how can we find out about skeletons?
“Well I’m wondering about how babies are born and how do the muscles work.”
“A book! A muscle book!” -Callen
“My friend hopped out of her bed and her chin opened up and she had to go to the hospital and they glued it back together. How’d they glue it back together?” -Britton
How can we know?
“We could learn!” -Callen
“Look it up online. On the computer.” -Spencer
“Or iPad. Or phone.” -Callen
“Ask about…nothing!” -Britton
Reminding Britton about the story of her friend, it was wondered aloud if the doctors or nurses at the hospital could help us find information
“Yeah!” -Britton & Spencer
“Cause they have x-rays!” -Spencer
“Yeah! X-rays!” -Britton
What are x-rays? How can they help us?
“When they put them over you, you don’t see your skin anymore! You see your bones! …yeah cause you can see muscles…you can see everything inside your body. Your blood cells.” -Spencer
“Cats! And Elephants!” -Eleanor
“You wanted to know why do they throw water on themselves.” -Margot
“Spiders and kittens. Why they keep their eggs in a egg sac (spiders).” -Margot
“I was drawing about big lizards! A turtle. The shell (Nico shares what he wanted to know about).” -Nico
Just how are we going to find out this information?
“Go in that book and get information if there is any.” -Margot
“A book with animals, then we’ll find out this information!” -Nico
Are there other ways we find information? How can we find out about Margot’s wondering of why spiders carry their eggs in an egg sac?
“How are we gonna figure out why elephants spray water all over themselves? Maybe it’s the water they drink full in their trunks.” -Eleanor
“I know. This nature movie I know how…why they do it. It’s because they take a bath, that’s how they take a bath. They spray water on themselves.” -Margot
What about Lemurs Liam? How can we find out about Lemurs? You had a question about where they live. How can we find that out?
“I know. From their home. (Where is their home?) I don’t know. They might have a tree house.” -Liam
“Well tree houses are for kids!” -Eleanor
“Well some animals, like birds have tree houses.” -Margot
“No tree houses have a bigger door. Birds have a smaller door.” -Nico
What about seeing these animals for real? Are there any of these creatures we could get in Studio Purple for real? How would that help?
“A spider!” -Margot
“Or a kitty cat!” -Eleanor
“Also a turtle.” -Margot
“You have a turtle.” -Liam
“Well we can look at it and see how it uses its shell.” -Margot
“I know how it uses its shell for real.” -Eleanor
“I know! to keep away from predators.” -Margot
“I know too! And it’s where it sleeps too, right?!” -Eleanor
“Well a Lemur would crawl all over the place.” -Margot
“Well we could ask some people. A zoo might have a Lemur. We could ask how they got it. Where they got it.” -Margot
Could we write a letter to a zoo? Ask them your questions? Are there other questions we might want to ask?
“Yeah! We’re gonna write a letter!” -Eleanor
“We could ask where they found a elephant.” -Margot
“Oh, all elephants live in a zoo!” -Eleanor
“Some live in a jungle and some live inside a zoo.” -Nico
Animal Small Group
Transportation Small Group
How are we going to find out the answers to our questions? Henry wants to know how the engine of a subway moves. How are we going to find this out?
“Go on a subway train.”-QUINN
“I’ve been on a subway train!”-SYLVIE
“I’ve been on one too, but I still haven’t seen an engine.”-HENRY
“I’ve seen the engine.”-QUINN
“You have to go inside of one!”-SYLVIE
“I’ve been inside and I got to sit in the front seat.”-QUINN
Did you see the engine?
“No. The engine is in the back.”-QUINN
What could we use to figure this out?
“A magnifying glass!”-SYLVIE
What about Quinn’s question? Quinn wanted to know what parts do you need to build a rocket ship. How are we going to find the answer to Quinn’s question? When you want to know something, how do you figure it out? Maybe you want to know what you’re having for dinner. How do you find this out?
“Your mom and dad tell you.”-QUINN
Could that help us figure out how a rocket ship is built?
“No. Your mom and dad don’t know how a rocket ship is built.”-QUINN
Does anyone’s mom and dad know how a rocket ship is built?
“Not mine.”-SYLVIE
“No…No…No.”-ALL
“A teacher!”-SYLVIE
“Probably the people that built the rocket. You could ask them.”-QUINN
“Astronauts are probably in outer space.”-SYLVIE
How would we ask them?
“Go to outer space.”-SYLVIE
“No, once they come back from outer space.”-QUINN
Do you know any astronauts?
“Magic School Bus”-HENRY
“Magic School Bus!”-SYLVIE
“Magic School Bus is a show.”-QUINN
“Magic School Bus is made up.”-SYLVIE
“No it is a show.”-HENRY
“The Magic School Bus shows you the inside of things.”-SYLVIE
Could we learn from Magic School Bus?
“You can see inside of things. Like once they went inside of somebody’s body.”-QUINN
“Yeah, I’ve got a book about that.”-SYLVIE
Do you think Magic School Bus has ever gone inside of either a subway or a rocket ship or a hot air balloon?
“Maybe.”
What about learning about hot air balloons? Henry, you said your mom and dad went into a hot air balloon. Could we ask Henry’s mom and dad, ‘cause they’ve been in a hot air balloon?
“No. Because they’re not here.”-SYLVIE
“My dad hasn’t finished his parent helper days.”-HENRY
Could we ask him when he’s back?
“We won’t remember.”-SYLVIE
Should we write it down so we remember?
“We don’t know how to write.”-SYLVIE
Should I write it down? What should I say in my note?
“How can you…What does it do in a hot air balloon?”-MADELINE P.R.
“Or I could just go home and tell him.”-HENRY
“You might not remember it.”-MADELINE P.R.
“Could you tell us what he says?…I have two questions. How does a hot air balloon float and how do you go inside?”-SYLVIE
How are we going to find things out about rainbows?
“I will ask the experts about rainbows.”-ADA
Who are the experts about rainbows?
“You (Hannah) and Maddy.”-ADA
Are you a rainbow expert? (to Hannah)
Hannah shakes her head no.
“Maddy”-ADA
“um…Ada.”-Madeline R.
“No. I don’t know about rainbows. I only know that they have every color in the rainbow. And that they live up in the sky.”-ADA
How else can we find what we want to know about rainbows?
“Ask people who know a lot about rainbows.”-ADA
“Well I only know my mom knows a lot about rainbows.”-MILO
Do you think we could ask her?
“yeah.”-MILO
So do we know anyone else who knows a lot about rainbows?
“Ah, no. I don’t know. Probably my dad ‘cause he’s way older than my mom.”-MADELINE R.
“Probably my dad ‘cause he’s way older than my mom.”-ADA
“Maybe we could get a speaker who knows about rainbows.”-MILO
“That is ridiculous. ‘Cause I’m a fairy and fairies know everything and I know that speakers do not know about rainbows.”-ADA
I think that sounds like a good idea, Milo. A speaker could tell us about them.
“yeah,”-MILO
“Yes!”-ADA
Are there any other ways we could get information about something?
“Books! Books!”-ALL
Do you think we could collect a lot of books about rainbows? Would that help us learn?
“Yeah!”-ADA
