8: Make the Ordinary Come Alive

Make the Ordinary Come Alive

By William Martin 

Do not ask your children

to strive for extraordinary lives.

Such striving may seem admirable,

but it is a way of foolishness.

Help them instead to find the wonder

and the marvel of an ordinary life.

Show them the joy of tasting

tomatoes, apples, and pears.

Show them how to cry

when pets and people die.

Show them the infinite pleasure

in the touch of a hand.

And make the ordinary come alive for them.

The extraordinary will take care of itself.

From experimenting on everyday materials to finding treasures buried in the soil, this is a week of making ordinary things come alive for our kindergarteners. 

We collected some of the materials that we ordinarily use in the classroom, and discovered some of their properties through experimentation. We anchored our experiments on questions that make us wonder and urge us to investigate and see what the results could possibly be.

Question 1: 

What will happen to our classroom materials if we place them in water?

Any opportunity to play with water is an absolute thrill for the children. We collected some materials that we use in the classroom regularly, such as blocks, paper, pencils, balls, and even the pieces of wood we collected from some of walks outside school. We asked the children, 

what do you think will happen if we place them in water?

"They will get wet."

Truly a valid theory. 😆 Upon probing, some children shared that the materials could possibly go down to the bottom of the water -- so we tested their hypothesis. We went outside and gathered around a big tub of water, and carefully (some not quite) placed the materials in the tub. The results were spectacular: some materials went straight to the bottom of the tub (just as what they thought would happen) but some stayed just above the water. There was even one -- a half-filled water bottle -- with the bottom half on the floor of the tub, and the upper half just above water.

Through this experiment, we learned two new words: 

sink and float.

Sink is when materials go down to the bottom of the water's container, and float is when it stays just above the water. It was exciting test what our ordinary materials can do -- and to possibly use this information to create or innovate something in the future. A new model of a boat, perhaps? 😀

Question 2: 

What is the easiest and fastest way to separate metals from other objects?

I presented the children with a challenge: to separate their wooden toys from the metals toys in  a big box. Normally, they would use their hands to simply sort it out. What would happen if they use a tool to do the task faster -- or simply just to make it more fun?

We got a tool that we are very much familiar with: a magnet. The children play with this on a daily basis. They use it to create beautiful structures and art pieces that we sometimes display in the classroom.

They each got a magnet and tried to dig for all the metals in the box. There was excited chaos that ensued around the classroom as the children discovered that some magnets can hold more than one piece of metal!

Look at how much they gathered!

Through this experiment, we discovered that magnets attract metal -- and they stick together just like glue!

 

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Our trip to Peace and Nature last week was such a beautiful way to connect with nature, and to see where some of the common materials we use come from. This week, we connected once again with nature by harvesting the sweet potatoes that the children planted last school year in the tulip field. They were so excited to get their hands dirty by digging through the soil. What they discovered under the ground was a beautiful surprise for all of them: food treasures from the earth that grew through the care of the people who tended to them. We collected sweet potatoes of different shapes and sizes! One took the children a long time to unearth as it was so big -- but of course, teamwork always prevails. 

We brought the sweet potatoes back to school and left them in the playground to sit for a week so that they will ripen and become much sweeter.

We cleaned the ones that were already broken or with open skins so that we can immediately cook them to avoid them from getting rotten. They were absolutely delicious!

It was such a beautiful experience to enjoy the food that we planted and harvested ourselves, with our friends!

It was a week of appreciating ordinary things -- of discovering something new about our simple materials and harvesting simple treasures from the earth. These little marvels are the simple joys that make the everyday, extraordinary. 

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Your Kindergarten teacher, 

Pam