Today I wanted to highlight something new we have in our manipulatives area. We are calling it a “container station.” It has different containers. Some have lids and some don’t. Some press on and some screw on and off. In the “container station,” we also have tongs, spoons, and different natural materials like shells and pebbles. Baskets are also there for the children. There is a photo album with photos of what the materials look like here at the below link:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.578578602201954.1073741871.213823248677493&type=1
For this blog post, however, we wanted to highlight how children are learning things like science, language, mathematics, fine motor skills, and social skills (e.g., teamwork) while using the materials. Here is a conversation one of the teachers overheard in this area today:
Child 1: Well, take all this out and close this.
Child 2: We need another jar. Let’s see if we need another one. I think we’ll need to add more big ones.
Child 1: We’re gonna need some more and stuff.
Child 2: That’s mine. That’s mine….
Child 1: She took mine.
Child 2: No, that’s mine, I collected that one.
Child 1: Well, then I’ll take this one.
Child 2: Then we have the same amount. You have two and I have two.
Child 1: We need to find more collages. Why do we need more? I think we’re gonna need more collages.
Child 2: This is all the things. Ok. This is all…
Child 1: Where’s the lid? I need the lid. I think we got all of them.
Child 2: So, tap tap. Rocks? Yeah. Rocks? Yeah.
Child 1 and 2: Woah! Woah!
Child 1: There is a lot. We have to put everything there.
Child 2: You think we got all of ’em?
Child 1: I think we got all of them. I don’t think it will work. Not that. We’re gonna need all of them.
At this point the children left the area. Child 2 called to child 1 and asked if they could still do “the collages.” One of the things the teacher is wondering is if the idea of calling it “collages” is from the fact that sometimes they use those kinds of natural materials to make collages. Also, it is interesting that they could work out their difficulty with sharing the materials without the teacher helping and they even used mathematics to figure out that they could still have the same amount. They talked about the size of materials for each of the containers, too, showing an idea of what would and would not fit. It was exciting to see these two children explore, but almost all of the children have tried out this area of the classroom since we have added it. We can’t wait to see where our exploration of open-ended materials take us next. We are also considering prompts the teachers could offer to the children to get them thinking even more deeply about the materials.