Learning- anytime, anywhere

Student:"RAWR! I'm a dinosaur! I eat other animals!!"
Me: "So, you're a carnivore?"
Student: *blank stare*
Me: "A carnivore eats meat."
Student: "yes, I'm a carnivore."
AHHHHH, LEARNING!!

Student: "I like to play in the sand"
Me: "Look what I have. I have a tablespoon. You have a teaspoon. Which one is bigger?"
Student: "The tablespoon."
Me: " I wonder how many teaspoons fit in a tablespoon. Let's find out. You get a spoonful of sand and put it in the tablespoon. How many was that?"
Student: "three"
Me: "So, there are three teaspoons in a tablespoon."
AHHHHH, LEARNING!!

I love how with children, anything can become a learning experience. These are both events that happened with children at work, and they both were learning experience. With children, they have basic knowledge, and it's the teacher's job to help them build onto that. It's part of Inquiry, but not the main focus of this blog.

A child came up to me with a toy dinosaur, and he left learning what the word carnivore meant without a textbook or worksheet. A child and I were playing in the sand and she learned about measurements without a word problem. Every opportunity is a learning opportunity.

As a teacher, it's important to turn every opportunity into a learning opportunity. You just have to keep your eyes open for them. With children, they're naturally curious and want to soak up everything they see. As a teacher, it's important to constantly be on the lookout for moments of education or insight. There are all kinds out there.

Well, what is it, anyway?

This is a picture of something we found while pumpkin hunting. I have no idea what it is, but someone said it was used to ward away spiders.

I love finding new and interesting things, and then trying to figure out what they are. I have seen this in the classroom I work at. They bring in interesting thing things from nature and have each child guess what it is. This not only brings science and nature into the classroom, but it allows the children to think freely about what each item is. The one I remember most was a cocoon, but the children really didn't know what it was. The most common answer was a leaf.
Children learn by relating things they know to things they are unfamiliar with. In this instance, the cocoon was on a twig, and leaves grow on twigs, so it must be a leaf. This is how children learn about new things. They build on the knowledge they already possess.

In my classroom, I'll be sure to allow this kind of thinking and learning, because it's the natural process. Children need to be able to form their own ideas about things, and by bringing in elements of nature and allowing them to see it, touch it, smell it, listen to it, and sometimes taste it, they get a sense of the world around them and can freely form decisions on different subjects. Of course, some guidance is needed, but by allowing children to make their minds up on something gives them a freedom that they may not have experienced yet.