"Do bees go to those flowers?"

This afternoon we put this on the table. We added some paint and paper, and waited.

"This is my flower, like that one."
educator-can this flower be planted outside here and the bees will come?
"No, its cold here. It will die."

"Do bees come to this flower?"
educator-I don't know, but I bet we can find out. Shall I get the iPad out and look?
"Yaaaa"
educator-it says here they grow in the ground in Florida where it is warm and bees pollinate the Poinsettia .

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"I'm just doing this. what is this?"
educator-this is paint.
"oh, I'm painting. Can I bring this home?"

educator- F, tell me about all your lines and colours.
(looks at her picture) "I have nothing to say."
educator-well I like it. I see you use a lot of red and black. This is an abstract painting. It still reminds me of the poinsettia.
(new fancy word)

Sometimes the children are very focused that they have nothing to say.
But tomorrow when she looks at her piece again and can reflect, I know she will have a lot to tell me.
I can't wait to hear it.

"wanna know what this is? It's a red storm."
educator-why is your storm red?
"it just is, It's red."

"I want to paint Naughty Mabel."
(thats a dog we just read about)



Educator- this flower is also called a Christmas flower.
"I have these at home."
"Me too, but mine are plastic so they don't get dead."
"These leaves are soft."
"They aren't just red ya know."

So not all provocations go as you expect, sometimes the children go somewhere else with their work. And thats ok, tomorrow we will try again.

Mixing Colours

We wanted to make coloured ice cubes.
The children decided that food colouring would work to make the ice cubes.
We predicated what we would do with them.

Some children thought if they melted they would turn into new colours.
Some children thought we could eat the coloured ice cubes.
And some children were excited to have coloured ice cubes for there bumps and bruises.

The next day, this is what happened.
"Can I have green and yellow?"
"The light makes me see the colour."

"If you squish it around in the bag, the water follows the ice cube."

"I'm melting mine to see what colour I get."

"Mine is making green."

"Red and Green kinda makes brown."

M and S are creating the same colour on their paper as in the bag of liquid.

R and E are creating a colour together.
"Put more blue on your finger."
"It's Purple."
The 2 of them added more blue then more red and continued making new shades.

"From here, (twists neck) it looks like 6's"
"Mine is getting a darker green. It gets lighter if you push on it hard. See?

"It's pink, then purple."

Listen to the children's voice-some awesome things are said. Sometimes saying nothing says a lot too. They are focused, and they are commenting on each others work, expressing their observations, working sensory and fine motor. Observing that mixing colours creates new colours, using different mediums to create art. The list goes on. This inquiry from beginning to end was enriched in so much learning, learning that they will remember because it was their interest that provoked the inquiry, it was meaningful and purposeful play!!!