Exploration

Kids are naturally curious. Give them a box, they'll open it; give them playdough, they'll squish it, roll it, smell it (taste it!). They want to know how many sponges they can fit in a measuring cup. They want to know what it sounds like when they pop a balloon. This natural curiosity is something any good teacher will tap into to provide meaningful and engaging learning experiences. As frustrating, or loud, or messy as it may be, these experiences will help shape children's ideas about their world, how they affect that world, and where they fit into it all. I have to remind myself of that every time one of my little guys paints his hands and splatters paint all over the classroom, or takes a bucket of water and pours it into the sand tray. They are not doing these things to be defiant, but to explore their world to make sense of it. My kids have only been on this earth for 3 or 4 years. That's it. To them, everything is new and exciting.

These two girls are inspecting our white carnations. We spent some time smelling them, cutting them, and putting them in water the other day. According to M, they smell pretty. According to A, they smell like green grass. The kids were talking about how the flowers were white, but that they'd seen purple and yellow flowers outside (yes, flowers are blooming in bonnie Scotland already!). We decided to make our flowers change colour by putting food colouring into the water! Nothing has happened yet, but we're hoping that the flowers will have had plenty of time to soak up the colour over the weekend!