The teachers offered explorations with materials to provoke discourse and negotiation amongst the children as they revisited the cactus mystery inspired by their walks. As the illustration of the cactus took shape, the children found themselves proposing contrasting possibilities.
Mila: Why are you making that so big?
MJ: The needles need to be big because they can poke.
Mila: They’re not big in real life. They have to be smaller.
MJ: It has to be big. Pokey can make a big ouch.
Mila, pretending to get poked: Ahh! Pokey, pokey.
They both begin to laugh.
Dahlia and Henry working on the palm tree:
Henry: I go on this side. You go on that side to make the tree.
Dahlia: It needs to be a long line.
Henry: Stop, stop, Dahlia!
Dahlia lifts up her pencil.
Henry: I wanted to make the leaves my way.
Dahlia: They have to be bigger. You’re making them the size of the pokey.
Henry looks at the marks of the needles.
Dahlia offering another reference: Look at the picture.
Henry: Ooh, okay. Can I try to make the leaf?
Dahlia nods yes.
Children are in pursuit of making meaning of the world around them. In our school, research is thinking jointly with others to consider several points of view and referencing artifacts to modify theories. – Teacher Silvana
“Reality, as always happens in children’s hands, reveals once again its infinite potential for transformation.” – Loris Malaguzzi