What children learn does not follow as an automatic result from what is taught, rather, it is in large part due to the children’s own doing, as a consequence of their activities and our resources.
—Loris Malaguzzi, The Hundred Languages of Children
Within a learning community there is a responsibility to disseminate and reflect on ideas. This responsibility is the essence of our group gatherings because we know that it is through dialogue that inquiry and critique flourish, that learning is fostered. The big ideas researched by the entire group and those ideas researched by an individual hold equal value.
Within the studio so much research is happening on a daily basis! While sharing everything with everyone is an impossible feat, we wonder,
"How can we better make individual discoveries visible to the group?"
And so we decided to begin a new round of group storytelling focusing in on stories from Studio Red. We hope this will build on the children’s love of storytelling and their desire to share with each other.
We asked Sophie to begin this new cycle of stories from our studio, to tell her story entitled, “Sophie Making Dragon.”
Sophie’s story began with, “Once I was trying to make a squasher downer, but it was too hard and so I turned it into a dragon…”
and the children asked questions to further understand...
How did you make the pattern? HELEN
How did you know how to make a dragon? CHARLOTTE
Why didn't you put a nose? SOFIA
How many pieces of paper did you use? SOPHIA
How did those tape legs dry? MARKY
Did you cut out the wings or did you just see the wings already cut out? AVIA
What was the steps that Helen told you? NICO
How did you make the wings points on the side? And how did you cut the fire? And how did you cut the body? ALEX
What's a squasher downer? ELEANOR
and the questions led to further research...
That’s a squasher downer. Sofia made it. HELEN
I added the black tape [today]. I was working with Sophie when I made it and I said, “Doesn’t this look like a squasher downer?” and she said, “Yes, that’s what I was trying to make!”
It goes onto the ground and it digs the road. It can make a new road and it can be shiny. SOFIA
