We’ve been noticing that both the Cilantros and the Dandelions are more curious about the children on the other side of the West Wing: “Who’s over there?” “What are they doing?” “What are they playing with?” The West Wing teachers wondered how we could use this natural curiosity to build connections, bridge ideas, and inspire investigations.
Silvana sent Dana an album of photographs from the Cilantro Building space and Dana projected one of the images on the wall of the Dandelion Building space. Then Dana invited a small group of children to explore.
Eddie: Look at those people!
Dana: That’s a photo of Wiley and Luka in the Cilantros’ building space.
Leon: Look at that tower.
Cary: It’s so tall.
Marcel: It’s like a ladder of a firetruck.
Eddie: It’s tall, tall, tall.
Dana: I am wondering how tall we can build today?
Leon: Okay! Can we do it?
Eddie: We can!
Marcel: We can!
The small group of children from the Dandelion group each took turns adding blocks and other building materials to the platform.
Leon: Is it my turn?
Eddie: Yes! It’s your turn, Leon!
Leon, adding a unit block on top of the stack: There.
Dana: That’s starting to remind me of Luka and Wiley’s creation.
Eddie: Yes!
Marcel, pointing to the image on the wall: Yes, look at those. Those right there.
Dana: What are you noticing, Marcel?
Marcel: It’s going up and up.
Cary: The blocks here are like those there [on the screen].
Eddie: Take a picture of it!
Marcel: Take a picture. You can show it to my mama.
Dana: Maybe we can also show it to the Cilantros?
Cary: Maybe they will like it.
Eddie: Yes, maybe they will!
Dana and the Dandelions sent back some photos to Silvana and the Cilantros. We waited to see how this back-and-forth communication would inspire the children to continue building up on their building platforms and across to new relationships.
The images of the Dandelions building sparked the Cilantros’ curiosity.
Leo: How did they build that?
Silvana: They saw pictures of Luka and Wiley building and wanted to build tall too.
Leo: We want to build tall to touch the clouds.
Ami: We can build a castle!
Leo: Yeah!
Ami: First I’m going to make walls.
Luka: This is my tower.
Ami: It’s our castle, Luka. We can build towers on the walls!
Luka: It’s Luka’s and Ami’s castle.
Ami, in an encouraging tone: Come on, Luka. Let’s build!
Luka and Ami begin to stack unit blocks to form a tower together. Ami begins to show concern as the tower begins to tip. She attempts to add a block and retrieves it.
As Luka places the next block, Ami suggests not to, yet offers space for Luka to try.
Ami: Luka, I think it’s going to fall.
Part of the tower loses its balance and falls down.
Emme: That’s okay. When it falls, you can build it back up again.
The children help to gather the blocks and rebuild the tower.
Silvana: Here is a picture of one of the Dandelion structures when it fell.
Luka: Why did the tower fall down?
Silvana: I’m curious about that too. I’m wondering where the last block was placed before it fell down. I’m also wondering how Ami knew that the tower being built for the castle was going to fall when Luka added the last block.
Ami: I don’t know, Teacher Silvana.
Silvana: Maybe we can send our wonder questions to the Dandelions.
Leo: Yeah!
Ami: Yeah, Teacher Silvana!
Building spaces can be an exciting environment to gain deeper understandings of scientific inquiry skills including investigating, formulating questions, and discovering the joy in being a builder. The play in building spaces cultivates our NSW culture of constructing and communicating explanations, collaboration, and holding space for other ideas. By inviting the Dandelions to wonder with us, we are building a community in which we welcome other perspectives that may inform future connections.