Children are researchers.

Children are researchers.  We have introduced them to this word this week.  This word elevates our understanding of their play, their work, their thinking.  We use it to help us all recognize how we learn from each other through play.  It represents the way we engage in continuing cycles of inquiry. 

               Research is investigating. 

               Research is questioning. 

               Research is theorizing. 

               Research is experimenting. 

               Research is changing your mind. 

               Research is sharing ideas. 

               Research is agreeing and disagreeing. 

               Research is continuing.

               Research is reflecting.

To support this process of reflection we have conversations during our gatherings together.  We ask . . .

What have we been researching in Studio Red?

And they answer: MUSHROOMS! Last week on our nature walk we encountered so many mushrooms! This context gave way to joyful discoveries and we have now created space in our studio to continue this research.

“We found mushrooms, a lot of mushrooms!”  PARKER

“We were tracing them and the paper was underneath and the plastic was on top.”  VIOLET

“You have to follow the lines on the mushrooms.  These are all muffins.  When you lift it up, a muffin!”  CALLEN

Mushrooms have curvy lines.  ELEANOR. 

“There’s lines in mushrooms.  I’m thinking in my brain.”  MARKY

“Maybe we could make mushrooms out of sticks.”  SOFIA

“They like to grow like we do!” VIOLET

“My dad knows that a lot of rain makes mushrooms.”  CHARLOTTE

“That’s how they grow.”  PARKER

“Why do we call it the pine tree forest?  We can call it a mushroom forest.”  SOFIA

“This one has brown ridges under it.”  HELEN

“It’s a weird one.”  MARKY

“We can look underneath.”  AVIA

“They look like flowers.”  ELEANOR

“It’s slimy!”  VIOLET

“Where is Sophie?  She loves mushrooms. I gave her a mushroom book for her birthday.”  HELEN

They answer: CHALK!

“So we can mix them.  Like put them in water.”  HELEN

“It melts and one got harder.”  AVERY

“Mix the chalk in the water in the jar.  Melt the chalk in like a bottle.  It turns into paint.”  

“Mix it really hard, it makes paint.” 

“Cuz when you put less water in the paint jar it will grow hard.  More water be more paint.”  ELLIOTT

“So when you leave the chalk out in the water it makes it goopy.”  CALLEN

“Yeah, really sticky.  It’s hard and soft.”  AVERY

“When you mix goo, it won’t go back together.  It gets gooier.”  CHARLOTTE

“I pressed it down and it made a print.  [It felt] Gooey.”  SOFIA

“Soft” 

“Slippery.”  AVERY

“I was screwing it.  Rub it hard and the heat.”  CALLEN

“Turning the chalk on the board, it melts.”  JOSEF

“I squeezed water onto the chalk so when we draw the wet chalk comes off and sticks.”  ELEANOR

“I think you should actually scrub it first or you could put the water on first.”  

“If the board is wet and the stick of chalk is dry, it will not make that sound.”  ELEANOR

“Fizzing makes a sound, bubbles don’t.”  JOSEF

“When bubbles pop they do.”  PARKER