Children's Thinking and Exploring in the Senior Studio

To extend on the thinking occuring over the past few weeks with water investigations, a new resource was added in the ELC for children to experiment with. It was wonderful to see the teamwork occurring as small groups of children brainstormed their ideas and problem-solved together to see what the resources could be used for.

Over the week, different indiviuals and groups of children have come together to share their ideas and theories and to test these. Mathematical language and concepts are expanding as children discuss what length of bamboo/tray is required in order to piece them together and create some kind of water feature. The concept of volume has also been discussed, with children discovering that if they increase the volume of water going through the bamboo/trays by using watering cans, the flow will last longer and travel further. Different theories and concepts are being explored such as balance, force and direction of water. After carefully balancing all the pieces to make a type of ramp, it was discovered that water cannot travel up the bamboo/tray, it will only travel down. However, children discovered that if enough force is used, a car could travel up the ramp.

Children are learning to care for the ELC and their resources. While using the new resource in the sandpit, peers have been reminding others to treat it carefully and not to put things that may be too heavy on it so that it doesn’t break. Throughout the senior studio, peers are reminding each other to ‘stay and play or pack away’, showing respect for their learning environment.

Mrs Julie McCosker, Service Leader