25: Pardon the Mess

"Messy classrooms are where the magic happens."

What do you see when you look at this picture?

In the story of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, many people see it as just a hat. It is actually a boa constrictor that swallowed an elephant.

Perspective is a powerful concept that changes how we navigate the world. It also allows us to see things in different ways, and teaches us the importance of thinking outside the box.

As we come close to ending our unit on materials, the kindergarteners were invited to unleash their creativity, and to see the trash that we have collected as resources for making their imagination and stories come alive.

It was a messy week, indeed, and I found myself repeating this mantra to those who would visit the Kinder 2 classroom:

According to learningismessy.com:

"Learning is often a messy business. Messy learning is part trial and error, part waiting and waiting for something to happen, part excitement in discovery, part trying things in a very controlled, very step by step fashion, part trying anything you can think of no matter how preposterous it might seem, part excruciating frustration and part the most fun you’ll ever have. Time can seem to stand still – or seem to go by in a flash. It is not unusual at all for messy learning to be… um… messy! But the best part of messy learning is that besides staining your clothes, or the carpet, or the classroom sink in ways that are very difficult to get out … it is also difficult to get out of your memory!"

Have a look at the beautiful memories that we were making this week: