Provocation: Apple & Pear

This group was presented with an apple and a pear. We had to wash our hands before eating them. A. said, "We have to wash the apple." I told him I'd already washed it. He replied, "But there's no water on it." I told him it was dry, then realized I should let him go and wash it, the same way we washed our hands. So he did.

B. had an apple in his hand and said, "I need a manifying glass." He went and got the magnifying glass to look at the apple and he shared it with the other children at the table so they could look too.

C. is new to speaking English. I cut the apple into pieces for him and counted 1,2,3,4. I realized that I should learn the Polish numbers to help connect with him.

I asked:
Do you like apples?
Do you like pears?
Do you like falling down the stairs?

Do you like white?
Do you like pink?
Do you like falling down the sink?

Would you like to do that. "No, you'd get hurt?" said D.

B. talked about the apple being big when he looked through the magnifying glass.

E. talked about the seed. I said, "Did you see the seed?"
E. replied, "I already took it out."
I asked, "What could you do with it?"
D. said, "You can take it outside, dig a hole, put it over and get an apple."

B. said, "I have apples at home."
A asked, "I have apples at home too. Do you have apples at home?" He asked C. who is learning English. I repeated the word "apple" as he ate his apple.

"Look I trapped it." B. had used the magnifying glass to cover the stalk of the apple.

The magnifying glasses became the object of interest. So too did cleaning the apple. So too did the skin of the apple and the seeds of the apple.

The rhyme was not needed for this provocation. I wonder what will happen when I do this with the next school group tomorrow.

Comments

Tape Man

Some of the children put blue tape over their mouth. Usually I would have said something like, "Take the tape off your mouth. It's not for putting on your mouth." Instead I thought of Tape Man (with some pride, being from New Zealand). I thought of creativity. I thought of art. So we sat together for whole group time, some with tape on their mouth. I said, "I've got something to show you." When they first say him one of them said, "It's scary." I reassured them that it's not too scary and that he's being funny. So they started to laugh. Pretty soon there was no more tape on mouths (not that I minded if there was, it's just hard to laugh). Thank you Tape Man for reminding us that creativity begins with exploration in play.

Changing Spaces

The blocks were in tubs on the shelf in the center of the room. It was time for a change, so the blocks were put onto the shelf by the OHP, providing a more enclosed space for the children to build with the blocks. One of the children spent time building a structure. After he has finished, he was able to leave it there for a while, and later in the day he was able to put the blocks back on the shelf where he had found them. Changing spaces creates new opportunities.

Whole Group Time

There is a fabulous carpet in my classroom for the children to sit on during whole group time. It's the alphabet arranged in a grid. There are enough spaces for each child to have their own letter of the alphabet to sit on. I can assign spaces, which is what I did last year. I did that until one of the children asked if she could sit on a chair, and not the carpet, during whole class time. Why not? This led the children to write labels for their chairs. After sitting on their chairs for a few weeks most of the children decided to return to sitting on the carpet again. I'd like to start this year by not assigning children seating spots on the carpet. Hopefully we can use it as a time to problem solve any disagreements about where they want to sit. If not, I'll assign spaces. At least to start with. And then I'll see what happens after that.

NZ Teacher

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