Tiiiire Swing

On Wednesday, Sam chooses to use his clipboard. He approaches Diane:

Sam     Tiiiiiiiiiire swing.

Diane   You’re thinking about a tire swing, Sam? Are you making a tire swing?

I’m coloring a tire swing. I’m gonna color a tire swing and write down it.

Sam crouches down and continues to work on his clipboard. After a few minutes, he says,

I writed tire swing. Sam smiles as he tells me this, much like the way he did when he had figured out how to do something tricky outside.  

 

 

He then puts his pencil back on its Velcro “home,” brings his clipboard over to his spot, and hangs it up. Later in the day, he adds more to his tire swing paper, but this time, he does not share his thoughts.

This small window into Sam’s thinking leaves us with so many questions.
We wonder:
Did something in Sam’s play remind him of a tire swing?
Maybe it is something that Sam has drawn before and he wanted to draw it again on his new clipboard?
Maybe Sam made marks with his pencil first and his drawing looked like a tire swing, as often happens with children this age, so he assigned this label to his drawing?

We also wonder about Sam’s understanding that “coloring” or drawing is different than writing.
He distinguishes between the two kinds of mark-making, stating he “will color a tire swing” and then “write” tire swing. How will these two different kinds of marks appear on his paper?

Sam also had a very slow, drawn-out way that he stated tire swing when he first came with his clipboard.
Was he imitating the way in which an adult slowly repeats a child’s words while taking dictation in a classroom sometimes?
Was he associating this slower way of speaking to only his writing?
We wonder if this second drawing was a continuation of his thinking on tire swing or if he added to his paper with completely new thinking?