As a teacher, and as a mother, I always look for opportunities to sit back, watch and listen as children play. For me, it is the best way to learn about how children make sense of the world. Consider a recent exchange between two five-year-olds playing with LEGOs:
Child A: Let’s make a LEGO ferry. No one has ever done it. We can be the first!
Child B: It looks too much like the Millennium Falcon.
A: Let’s see about this…
B: Wait! I have an idea! We can use those [LEGO pieces] as pontoons.
A: OK, I have to measure this. Are these as big as the boat? Yes! They are good for the rear part.
B: We need another so we can put one on each side. It will look like a real boat.
A: That has to slide over here – exactly like this… I have an idea! [he adds a piece]
B: I was thinking we could use this as a tail.
A: This can go here.
B: Wait! We can put this in the middle of it…
A: (pause) I was looking at your face to see if you were going to sad about my creation.
B: We can do this, so it is easier to build.
A: Oh, good idea. I didn’t even think of that.
B: He is going to drive by computer because not many new boats have steering wheels now. Driving a boat is a really hard job, right? It’s complicated.
A: How do cars get on?…Oh, it can just be a passenger ferry. We’ll need some seats. Can there be seats on the top level, too?
B: Well, actually, you know what I was thinking, to make windows we could do this.
A: Oh, good idea. But before that we need a little, flat piece to help it dock.
B: I have a flat square. Look how many small pieces I have! I have 100 – more than we need! Wait…now the guy won’t fit in. His arms won’t fit unless we make a big window…
In just a few minutes, the children reveal excellent problem solving skills, innovation and vision. They negotiate ideas, compare lengths, size and amounts (“as big as” and “more than”) and use a good vocabulary for spatial relations (“middle”, “rear”, “top”). They show an emerging understanding of various types of real-world boats and how they are used.
For me, a huge down-side to the busy world in which we live (and teach) is that there are fewer and fewer moments for this type of quiet observation and authentic assessment.
[...] Simply put, you can’t regulate what a young child will understand. Why is our federal government trying? You can, however, learn a great deal about how young children understand the world by listening to them play. For more on that, check out this previous post , Taking Time to Listen and Learn. [...]