Katherine, our snack teacher, brought in a large sunflower from home as a provocation for the children. Cindy shared it at morning meeting.
Teacher Sam set it up on the studio table for the children to explore. The children began to notice the shapes in the flower.
Charlie S. : The flower is a big circle.
Deia: The leaves are a triangle.
Ella: The petals are a rectangle. The sunflower seeds are a hexagon.
Deia: The stem is a rectangle. -she noticed the overall shape.
Charlie: No it’s a circle! – Charlie views the hollow, approaching the concept of 3-D.
Oliver: No, it’s a line! – simplifying the discussion to what is remembered.
Charlie: It’s a line circle. – Charlie offers a compromise to reach agreement.
Oliver: I want to paint it.
The teachers have been introducing water colors in this space and they were on the shelf for more exploration.
Sam: What colors would you need?
Oliver: We need yellow. I see yellow. We need white I see. And I see black.
Oliver: We need green.
Sam: What kind of green would you need?
Oliver: Light green.
Charlie: Maybe purple and blue.
Oliver: No, there’s no purple and blue.
Ella: I see brown.
Sam: We don’t have a brown. How could you make a brown?
Ella: We can try to mix orange and black.
Oliver: No, red and black.
Ella: Let’s try yellow, red and black.
As Sam watched this experience, she noticed how the exploration of colors and shapes done this year gave the group a point of entry when investigating the sunflower. The concept of finding many different shapes and colors in an object lead to the next step of beginning to make informed representations. Because they observed the detail of the shapes and colors of this flower, they were able to more accurately represent the flower in water color.