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1.     Observation and Analysis

Context information: Two Children were sitting at the dining table eating tangerine, their tangerines have seeds inside. They were talking about if they can grow the tangerine seeds. Their dad gave them some beans, peas and seeds to grow, even some fresh peas as well. Two children are school age children.

Observation: Vutin and Masha are sitting at the dining table eating tangerine. Vutin is peeling the tangerine. Masha says “Vutin and I are having tangerines, our tangerines have seeds in them” Masha tells Vutin “We could plant them, maybe they will grow.” Their dad walks towards the kitchen counter and asking two children “you guys are talking about planting some seeds?” Vutin and Masha answered yes. Masha says “My dad gives us something to help us try to grow something from our seeds.” “We will use dry beans and fresh peas too.” Masha is folding the paper towel with both hands and put two folded towel paper in two plates. She says “First we put paper towel on a plate, and then add a little water, and then we added our beans, peas and seeds.” Vutin is adding water on the paper towel in the plates. Vutin points at the middle line in the bean with his left hand index finger and says “see the little hole, the plants will grow right out from here.” He put the plates with wet paper, beans, peas and seeds in two separate zipper bags. Masha says “The bag will keep the water from drying up.” Vutin puts them on the table near the window. He puts one plate open to allow the sunlight getting in, and the other plate is covered by one plate with no sun. Masha says “we will see what will look like about a week?” One week later, they opened two zipper bags, they took out the beans, peas and seeds from the plate with sun, and they also took out the plate without sun. They stand beside the table and watch the different and change. Masha says she finds out that the one kept in the dark with no sun didn’t grow much. But the ones in the sun have sprout growing out. Masha shows that there are water droplets in the zipper bag. Masha says “The sun formed few water droplets in the zipper bag and I think that helps the seeds to grow.” Masha is holding a bean with her right hand thumb and index finger and says “This is before the seed went to the water and in the sun and grow.” She holds a bean with sprout and roots and says “this is after.” Vutin is holding the bean with sprouts and roots, he points at the bottom part of the bean and says “and this must be its root.” Masha points another pea’s root and says “This is one of the peas and this part looks like roots of the plant.” She points the bud of the pea and says “this looks like the little leaf.” She points at a tangerine seed and says “the tangerine seed didn’t grow at all, I have no idea why?” She looks at her parents and asks “why?”

The drive question: Why the tangerine seed didn’t grow?

Analysis:

It appears that Masha has some inquiries on what will happen if the beans on the wet towel paper in the zipper no sun and what will happen if it’s with the sun. She also has an inquiry on why the tangerine seed in the zipper bag didn’t grow. This can be seen from the Anecdotal observation on Feb 23 2021 when she asked why the beans on the wet paper towel in the zipper bag with no sun didn’t grow too much, and she asked her parent why the tangerine seed didn’t grow at all. According to Ages & Stages, Three- year –olds “asks who, what, where, and why questions.” According to E.L.E.C.T, Preschool Kindergarten “asking why to determine causes.” And “Asking questions to clarify their understanding.” Therefore, Masha will enhance her cognitive concept of “cause and effect” by actively exploring causes and interacting with peers and adults.

It appears that Masha is developing her cognitive skills in communicating findings, and understanding before and after. This can be seen from the Anecdotal observation on Feb 23 2021 that Marsha was showing her findings: the beans before putting on the wet paper towel in the zipper bag with the sun, the bean after. How it changed. According to Ages & Stages, Five-Year-olds “understands before and after, above and below”. According to E.L.E.C.T, Preschool Kindergarten: “Communicating Findings, presenting their ideas to others through drawings, telling, music and movement.” Marsha explored how the seed will grow through experiment putting beans, peas and seeds on the wet paper towel in a zipper bag with sun and without the sun. She also learned the parts of the bean after growing, for example, a little leaf from the bean, and root. She might think about what this bean with bud and root will become if we grow it in the water or soil. Educators could help children to the scaffold to help children reach a higher level. Vygotsky states that the presence of someone with the knowledge and skills to guide the learner would be one of the essential factors that are critical to the success of the learning process. Scaffolding, or supportive activities provided by an educator help the child to achieve the Zone of Proximal Development. (Kail & Zolner, 2018).

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During common experience, children shared their experience about growing the seeds, beans and peas. In order to provoke children’s inquiry and interests when exploring, I set up the environment with open-ended materials, real materials and tools to allow children to explore with their senses.  Children can build real experience of planting seeds. The environment is followed the emerging principles. Base on knowledge that children have already learned, this common experience can scaffold children’s knowledge to another level of learning. Reading a variety of books about planting, children will learn different plant, seeds and how they look like after they grow bigger. It also enlarges children’s vocabularies on parts of the plant, and learns about what the plant need to grow. It inspires children to explore the world around them by themselves with their senses. I use open-ended questions to provoke children’s thoughts, ideas and interests. It helps me to understand children’s background knowledge, and I can co-construct the knowledge with children, collaborating children’s inquiries for further exploring and learning.

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1)     What makes the project appropriate for investigations?

This project will facilitate development in a range of development domains:

For physical development, we can set up the materials and tools for children to plant seeds.  Children can practice their tool use skills by using simple tools and equipment for the investigation and engaging in active play using fine motor skills. (E.L.E.C.T, 5.3 Fine motor Skills -Tool Use).  Children can be encouraged to draw or sketch their observation or learning during or after field trips. (E.L.E.C.T, 5.3 Fine Motor Skills -Drawing) Children are encouraged to create movement with songs about plants. (E.L.E.C.T, 5.2 Gross Motor Skills – Movement and Expression)

For Language and literacy development, Educators can read books about planting seeds and they are encouraged to tell personal stories about planting experience with children to increase their vocabulary, background knowledge, and provoke their thinking. (E.L.E.C.T, 3.3 Vocabulary 3.7 Enjoying Literacy 3.13 Matching Spoken Words with Written Ones) The educator can encourage children to describe their drawings or sketching in a small group. (E.L.E.C.T, 3.5 Using Descriptive Language to Explain, Explore and Extend)  Children can be encouraged to create labels for parts of a plant.  They can also record their planting logs. (E.L.E.C.T, 3.3 Vocabulary, 3.11 Letter Recognition, 3. 14 Beginning to Write Letters of the Alphabet and Some High-Frequency Words)

For Cognitive development, in this project, children ask questions about why the tangerine seed didn’t grow? What will happen if the plant without sunlight? Through asking questions to provoke children’s learning the causes. (E.L.E.C.T, Questioning, 4.4 asking “why” to determine causes, telling others of problems)When planting seeds, educators can ask predictive questions such as “What will happen if there is no air for plant?” Children are encouraged to make predictions and think about how they can find out the answer to the question. (E.L.E.C.T, 4.9 Reasoning Logically, Exploring Transformations and Hypothesizing)

For Social and Emotional development, educators can provide learning opportunities happening in individual, small groups and large groups. During small groups, children have more opportunities to interact with peers and materials. They can learn social problems solving skills. They can learn how to take turns and share materials. They learn self-regulation.  They can learn how to be a team player by helping and co-operating with others. “Piaget believed that cooperation is also helpful for active learning. Cooperation helps people experience moral dilemmas and conflicts, and to become aware of differences in opinions and viewpoints, thereby creating cognitive disequilibrium.” (Bullard & Hitz, 1997) Finally, they will make friends with each other. (E.L.E.C.T, 1.1 Making Friends, 1.2 Conflict Resolution and Social Problem-Solving Skills, 1.4 Helping Skills, 1.5 Interacting Positively and Respectively, 1.6 Co-operating, 1.8 Taking Another Person’s Point of View) Throughout the Project, their knowledge and skills increase and they will have more confidence in themselves. (E.L.E.C.T, 2.3 Self-esteem, 2.6 Positive Attitude towards Learning)

3)     What opportunities for investigation exist in the various curriculum areas?

In the anticipatory web, I thought about every possibility in a range of curriculum areas. Children will involve literacy area when doing research about planting through reading books and telling personal stories, it will enlarge children’s vocabularies and sentences. Children will learn science when planting the seeds, beans and peas in the water; they will do experiments on what will happen for the plant without sunlight. In this project, children will draw the life cycle of the seed and plant, involving their creative skills. We will plant seed indoors and outdoors, to see the difference between planting indoor and outdoor. It will involve children’s math skills when they recording and comparing.  After the common experience, children will involve in social studies about where tangerine from, which country it grows is and how about banana, apple and other fruits, then we will go on a field trip to apple garden to learn about where apple comes from, and apple tree life cycle. It is a good opportunity for children to get connected with nature and our community. During or after the field trip, children are encouraged to draw or sketch what they see during their field trip. It will involve children’s art and literacy skills. In this project, it can involve music, dance and body movement, children can sing songs about fruit and planting songs, such as “apple red, apple round, apple juicy apple sweet…” or the “planting song”. “Yong children learn through play, where they have the opportunity to read books, listen to stories, write stories, role play, build, dance, create art and music, listen to music, engage in scientific inquiry, conduct an experiment, practice math skills, complete puzzles, investigate materials, play games, or use technology.” (Bullard, pg. 83)

4)     How will collaboration be encouraged?

In this project, collaboration will be encouraged; children have different experiences and knowledge about planting seeds. Children have different knowledge about the plant. Through working together, children will learn from each other, and they will collaborate their thoughts to explore their inquiries. When children are telling personal experiences around planting, they will exchange their knowledge and ideas. Educator will write down children’s inquiries, and make a collaborative web for children’s further learning and exploring. It will help educators to plan a variety of learning opportunities to support children’s inquiries.

5)     How will the investigation bring great meaning to the child’s understanding of their concrete social and emotional world?

In this project, Children will explore authentic materials such as different kinds of beans, seeds and peas. Children will involve real planting experience, they will use real seeds, tools and soil to plant their seeds, through the real experience, and children will explore with their five senses to find their answers to their questions. They will express their interests and happiness when they doing real experiences. Through working in teams, it will help children to understand how to work together with others.  Family members as volunteers in this project will help to build a positive family relationship. After the common experience, we will go on a field trip, for example, we will go on a field trip to an apple garden, children will have a concrete experience and better understanding of where is an apple from, how people get apples, for example, farmers pick the apple in during fall season, apples will be delivered to the grocery store. Then people buy apples from the grocery stores. Children can visit the local grocery store to interview the tellers to ask questions they want to know. According to Vygotsky, “Development cannot be separated from its social context.” (Observation 1, class notes) It will bring a great meaning for children's understanding of the real social experience and their affection for the world around them.

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Grow plant with sun and without sun

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Compare the difference between orange and tangerine

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Comparing difference between orange and tangerine