And remember...not everything can--or should--be a project

Again, from the Reggio listserv conversation:


...hinge on a question I hear a lot--how do you know what is "project" worthy. There are lots of depends.

SY writes:
"The children will tell you what they want to learn, and after much thought, planning, and collaboration with other teachers, you provide opportunities,
toys, themes, etc., to expand children's play and learning."

If you are waiting for the children to "tell you" you are going to miss lots of rich opportunities. If you go with discussions that children have-such as birthday parties etc. you are going to go up many dead ends-this often leads to teacher
discouragement. (my emphasis)

Let me just say that children say many things that excite them, but not all things that have children excited can sustain a project. For example some of the MAJOR LONG TERM projects that I have done with children came from a "casual" question or remark, or from observations that could have been over looked but in my capturing of them and pondering upon them they transcended into extraordinary projects--last year it was the observation of one small moment that had me pondering about 3's with that in my mind a few weeks later when another not so long moment happened it burst forth into a provocation that became our 9 month In Dialogue with Lines project.

This year we (the children who were in the line project last year are now 4/5's) are into a journey (once again I refuse to use the "p" word although we are into one) that happened with this small statement as we walked off the playground as a gust of wind came up the child exclaimed, "Wow what kind of wind was that?" That was on August 24, and we are now into a journey of winds--the children have a "dictionary" of winds that they are observing, we are going out in search of and unpacking their theories of their winds (we have about 20+ at the moment). Amazingly their theories of the different types of winds that they are observing aligns with what researchers and scientist tell us!! I am getting ready to go out the door for another day in our journey as the children yesterday debated the difference between air and wind!! We will bring this back to the table today!!

...Lets go back to the question of how does a project give birth? How do you know? As I pondered on SY's question again this morning it dawned on me what my
process is--mental sifting! It is beyond reflection as I begin to take what the children have said or done and I toss it in my mind thinking about the
rich possibilities, in that mental sifting I let pieces fall out until I had rich and sustainable possibilities in my mind.

In the case of the wind...at the group meeting I tossed what Bella had said back to all the children in the form of an I wonder question. It ignited. As the children's thoughts poured out that morning, I began to do an instant mental sift---looking at the excitement, looking at the theories that could be found in this concept of "wind-ness", thinking in the moment and yet 10 steps ahead, feeling the excitement myself as it held many I wonders for myself and the idea of wind can keep the children's thinking one foot into fantasy-where theories percolate. All of this flashed and tossed in my mind in the 10 mins. that the children shared about that wind during our group meeting.

After the meeting I talked to my team, I began to mentally sift the question and the children's reaction more and wondered what to toss back the next day to see if this indeed had kindled the children's thinking. The following day I tested the
"temperature" of the children's interest. Again it soared. Later in the day while outside I began hearing the children wondering what wind they were feeling. I knew that something was percolating in the children's minds--something worthy of a journey.

Just a few of my thoughts...I don't know if this makes sense..but there are so many depends but it is the mental sifting that I go through that often helps me to find those moments that when tossed to the children will take off and
soar, like the wind :-)
Leslie