What did you learn today?
Have you ever asked a child this question, “What have you learned today?”
I find what I observe about what I believe a child is learning to be vastly different than what the child responds with. Usually, I find Bella’s response to be in the realm of “I don’t know”, “nothing” or “umm, I forgot.” Tuesday and Weds. brought adventures at the Zoo. We didn’t actually go to the zoo either of these days but the girls had been with their Dad the previous week. Bella made a map, with a few beginning letters for words like B- bear picture, H- horse picture. Each animal picture represented a cage or zoo section which also corresponded with sections of the house. The Monkeys were in the living room, while the elephants were in the bathroom. I am very thankful that Bella chose to put the elephants in the one room of the house that has a hose. 
Of course, Gillian played along with her sister. I found the two of them behind the recliner, the deer had gotten out of their pen and were on the loose, they didn’t want to be trampled.
I can appreciate the level of play involved in this scene. The girls were using math skills, science and social studies (geography, topography), language, reading and writing, cognitive, social/emotional and I would argue art as they created pictures of the animals on their map.
If you don’t hear from me in a few days, it would be safe to assume that I have swallowed by an animal or got lost in the zoo. (ponders- Maybe I should leave a trail of breadcrumbs as the zoo map was eaten by a gorilla this morning?)
Posted on September 12th, 2007 by karen
Filed under: Uncategorized