For months we have been busy working on our cardboard boat! Each day during our gathering we invited children to sign up for a small group to add new parts to our boat or revise their work. With this routine, it seemed every day a few children would enthusiastically volunteer. Now our boat is well equipped with various pieces. Beyond an anchor, engine, and steering wheel, the boat displays a carpet ramp, swimming pool, mail delivery ramp, grown-up beds and baby beds (with blankets and pillows, of course!), replacement tubes for the engine, windows, fish and a fish storage box, a smoke stack, a store that sells everything, higher walls to protect from water, a ladder, a dinghy, and a clock. And also a dock, treasure box, and treasure, which simply would not fit! (But it has been decided it is quite okay to leave the treasure box beside the boat where the people on the boat can look out through the windows and view it. Oh yes, and do not worry! It is locked up and only the children have the cardboard keys to open it!)
And then, last week, no one volunteered. Knowing that the year was coming to an end, and seeing evidence of dwindling interest, we teachers decided to bring the boat into our meeting circle and pose a very important question. . .
Is our boat finished?
Yesterday no one wanted to, but maybe today I will. SOPHIE
What would a finished boat look like?
This. AVERY
Look on the list. CALLEN
You might know cuz all of the things are crossed off the board. VIOLET
Number two is not crossed off. SOPHIE
I think our boat is going to be done if we do number two. AVIA
I think we should do smaller boats alongside. CALLEN
Mini – boats. ELEANOR
So, I made a dinghy. SOPHIE
Who made the idea of the hiding tubes? CALLEN
I did! MARK
Is it important who had the idea?
NO!
We should only do number two and then we are done. AVERY
Because we should do all of them. ELLIOTT
I want to do the work today! CHARLOTTE
Me too. SOFIA
Maybe if we are done, I don’t think we should do another boat cuz we would have to do it all again. AVIA
It is done! Avery
Yeah, It is done! Alex
It is finished! There’s an anchor, a swimming pool, an engine, windows, roof, steering wheel, mail chute, fish storage, tube collection and a place for airplanes to land on. ELEANOR
I see you taped another piece of cardboard to it. VIOLET, noticing the support the teachers had added.
Guys, what about the luggage? It will get soaked. CALLEN
I don’t think we have enough room cuz I don’t think we have enough space. [for anything else] AVIA
We listened to and reflected back on the children's conversation. We considered the difficulty of arriving at a group consensus and the time it might take for the children to arrive at alternative ideas. We decided to propose an idea to the group, building on Callen's thinking, and see if that might help the group follow a common path forward.
We heard some of you say the boat is finished and express that you do not want it to change. We heard others say they want to continue to add some, if not all, of the items on our boat parts list. We heard Avia say the boat might not have room for all the parts. We heard Callen say we could make another smaller boat all together.
We want to propose an idea.
What do you think if we stopped work on this big boat, but invited you to create smaller, individual boats on your own if you are interested in thinking more about boats?
And we heard a resounding, "Yes!"
This week, those children who were interested in continuing their research and representation of boats, visited the space to play, assemble, plan, record, and glue!
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