Puddle Boats

This is the kind of thing that happens when, as a program and as a teacher, you open yourself up to the possibilities that lie within the framework of child-led learning.  Our theme for the month is snow, and for the week it's dressing for the cold.  Well... this week has been more like spring than winter.

This morning, at drop-off, I was having a conversation with one of our kids about how our yard was literally like a lake yesterday, the sand box being an island.  We talked about puddles, big and small, and what fun we can have in them.  He mentioned that at home he likes to make boats with his dad.  So, I asked him if he thought we should make boats in our lake-puddle.  His face lit up, and he said, "Yeah, then we can be pirates!"

Seeing the wheels of imagination turning is a wonderful thing.

So, instead of offering an art choice that involved mittens, I grabbed an empty tub and filled it with egg cartons, pipe cleaners, corks, and duct tape.  I brought it out, and we gathered wet sticks.  The kids came up with lots of different ideas about how to make boats, and were enthusiastic about trying them.  We discovered that if the egg cup are facing up, they will fill with water, and the boat will not float.  If we turned them facing down, they worked much better.

So much to learn in one little idea that came straight from the mind of a preschooler!