The Value of Found Objects

Big and small dinosaurs were put into the classroom as an invitation, after a group had chanted, "Dino Rocket, Dino Rocket."

The children colored the bottom of boxes to make a 'home' for the dinosaurs.

A big red dinosaur was too big for any of the boxes in the room.

"I wonder what we could use for the big dinosaur," I said looking around (I wondered if I should bring some bigger cardboard boxes into the room).

A. spotted a wicker basket sitting on the table. It was the basket we'd used to store the big dinosaurs in. A.went and got the basket. He gave it to B. who was the child with the big dinosaur.

B. started to color the bottom of the wicker basket, just like they group of children had been coloring the bottom of the cardboard boxes. I didn't need to ask him to stop because the wicker basket was one I'd found on the side of the road, put out as garbage. I'd taken it (and 2 others) home, washed them in the bath and left them outside to dry.

A free basket means that I'm not going to be concerned with the children using it any way they choose.

Such is the value of found objects.

Comments

Fascinating Sunflower Sprouts

When planting sunflower seeds, one of the children wanted to do it on his own. He got a white plastic bottle from the recyclables shelf, added some dirt, a couple of sunflower seeds, water and took it outside to put it in the sun. Such independence. Such initiative. It was fascinating to see that different children were interested in different aspects of the process.

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.

NZ Teacher

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