During the third part of our exploration, the children used measurement to create a scale model of an African savanna. While this process helped the children develop mathematical concepts and skills; it also encouraged them to engage in critical thinking and collaboration during each step of the process. Most importantly, the children's sense of community blossomed as they worked together to create our African savanna.
As we reflected on the children’s experiences measuring the actual size of animals (“Actual Size” - March 21, 2015), we noticed that many of the animals the children measured live in the African savanna. In response to this interest, we read the book Here Is the African Savanna by Dunphy. It’s lilting text describes both the vegetation and animals who live in this habitat.
“Here are the zebras
who eat the grass
that grows on the plain
which turns green or brown
depending on the rain:
Here is the African Savanna”
The children were fascinated by the book’s repetitive text and requested that we read it several times, each time reciting more of the text with the teachers. The children also eagerly shared their knowledge about the animals in the book, and asked thoughtful questions about their relationship to the habitat. We asked the children if they would like to learn more about the savanna and create a African savanna habitat together. They were excited by this possibility, and wanted to start working immediately!
Before we could begin constructing the savanna, however, we needed to make a plan. We created a list of vegetation and animals found in the African savanna, together with their heights, and we discussed which ones we would include in our savanna.
The children decided that our African savanna should have 1) a river so that the animals would have water, 2) short grass for the animals to eat, 3) tall grass so that the animals could hide and stay safe, and 4) Acacia umbrella trees so that the giraffes could eat their leaves and the other animals could stand in their shade.
The children were now ready to create a design, or “blueprint”, for the savanna. Small groups of children worked together to determine the location of the river, the tall and short grasses, and the trees.
Since we were working on the savanna in the TinkerLab,
the children wrote a sign so that everyone in the school
would know about our project and could watch it take shape.
Creating maps and models foster children’s understanding of spatial relationships, which are central to visual patterns, data representations, and geometric shapes. The design for the savanna was, in essence, a two-dimensional map of what would become a three-dimensional model.
Next, the children created the river. The children described this process as follows:
“Cut tissue paper and kind of crinkle it. Glue it on the paper river.”
“Cut tissue paper and kind of crinkle it. Glue it on the paper river.”
Then, the children added the short, Bermuda grass. After considering tissue paper and construction paper, they decided that green Spanish moss would be the best material to use.
Throughout the children’s exploration of animals’ actual size and
the African savanna, we often used indirect comparisons to
help the children visualize the size of the animals and plants that we
could not bring into the classroom. The paper strips depicting the
length of an elephant’s trunk, a zebra’s tail, or a rhino’s horn became
reference points as we read books about African savanna animals
and vegetation.
We also made comparisons to people and aspects of our classroom
environment. For example, we explained that a zebra is a little shorter
than the teacher, while a giraffe’s legs are a little taller than the teacher.
From those comparisons, one child inferred that “A zebra can stand under a giraffe, and maybe the giraffe could protect the zebra.” The children also hypothesized that a 19-foot giraffe, which we described as being taller than three teachers standing on top of each other, would be taller than the ceiling of our classroom!
These indirect comparisons helped the children create a visual image of an animal or plant’s height. As adults, we have worked with standard units so frequently that we can visualize something that is five feet tall. Young children do not yet have this understanding, but they could imagine a zebra that was a little shorter than their teacher.
The child’s inference that a zebra was short enough to stand underneath a giraffe’s legs is an example of the relationship between language development and mathematical thinking. Unlike objects or actions, the concepts of measurement and size derive their meaning from relationships. “Taller” has meaning when compared with something “shorter”. Children need both the mathematical understanding of attributes (height, length, weight, etc.) and the ability to correctly use vocabulary to express the relationships (taller, shorter, heavier, lighter, etc.) to engage in the process of measurement in a meaningful way.
The child’s inference that a zebra was short enough to stand underneath a giraffe’s legs is an example of the relationship between language development and mathematical thinking. Unlike objects or actions, the concepts of measurement and size derive their meaning from relationships. “Taller” has meaning when compared with something “shorter”. Children need both the mathematical understanding of attributes (height, length, weight, etc.) and the ability to correctly use vocabulary to express the relationships (taller, shorter, heavier, lighter, etc.) to engage in the process of measurement in a meaningful way.
The children’s many experiences with measurement enabled them to understand that our African savanna would need to be much smaller than its actual size, but that the relative sizes should remain the same. For example, they knew that the elephant grass they make should be much taller than the Bermuda grass, and that they should draw a zebra so that it can stand underneath a giraffe’s legs.
While the children were not yet able to fully understand the concept of scale using adult language (½ inch equals one foot), they quickly grasped the idea of “pretending” that each space on a paper “measure” was one foot tall and that we could create “measures” (as the children called them) for the vegetation and animals we were going to make.
The “measures” introduced the children to the concepts of scale and proportion. Just as the strips of paper cut into one-foot lengths helped the children use a ruler in a meaningful way to measure the size of animals (“Actual Size - March 21, 2015), “pretending” that each one-half inch space on the paper “measures” was equal to one-foot in height helped the children create a proportional model using language and tools that were familiar and relevant to them.
The children cut blades of elephant grass from construction paper, using the six-foot and nine-foot “measures” as a guide, and glued them onto the savanna. The children were not aware that they were developing their small-motor skills: they were simply focused on working together to accomplish the task. “We need a lot of grass!” “This is hard work.” “Look at how much grass we made!”
Next, the children created the two Acacia umbrella trees for our habitat. When we discussed the materials we could use during Morning Meeting, one child suggested that we use real branches so that the trees would look real; but also stated that they needed to be small because life-size trees would not fit into our classroom!
Constructing the trees required measuring, problem-solving, collaboration, and compromise.
The teachers guided the children as they counted the 24 spaces on the “measure” that indicated the height of the Acacia umbrella tree. Accurately counting more than 10 objects can be challenging for JK children, and counting symbols is an even more complex task. After this experience, we added numerals to the “measures” for the animals as a way of supporting the children’s one-to-one correspondence and their numeral recognition.
This process differed from most of the children’s other experiences with measuring, in that they needed to create branches of a specific length rather than measure the length of the branches. This required the children to think of the measurement, not the object, as the constant; and to change the object so that it matched the measurement.
Next, they tied the branches together with a rubber band. When they found that the branches would not stand up, they tried placing them in a cardboard tube. That helped the branches stand independently, but the tree was still wobbly. The teacher asked the children if they thought a clay base would make the tree more stable. Earlier in the year, the children had made bases to support their clay sculptures, so they were eager to try a similar approach with the tree. It worked!
After completing the base, one pair of children had different ideas about how to use the clay. One child thought that it should only be used for the base, while the other child thought that it should cover the tube to look like bark. Then one of the children offered a compromise: “I have an idea. We can use clay on one half of the tube and not use clay on the other half of the tube.”
Both children agreed to this compromise and continued working. As the trunk of the tree began to take shape, the child who had wanted to use clay only for the base said, “I think we should use clay for all of it”, and both children smiled as they added clay bark to the remaining portion of the trunk.
Both children agreed to this compromise and continued working. As the trunk of the tree began to take shape, the child who had wanted to use clay only for the base said, “I think we should use clay for all of it”, and both children smiled as they added clay bark to the remaining portion of the trunk.
The final part of the process was gluing the moss-like “leaves” to the branches.
At last, the habitat was complete and ready for animals! When we brought it into the classroom, the children were excited to see the results of their many days of hard work. One child smiled and said, “I just can’t stop looking at it!”
The children had used models and reference photos to draw animals found in the African savanna throughout the process of creating the habitat. Now, we added “measures” that helped the children draw the animals to scale for the savanna.
At last the savanna was complete, and most importantly, it was ours!
Winter Harvest Fest, a time for the children to share their experiences at school with their families, was approaching. The children were eager to show their families our African savanna, and were even more excited when we asked if they would each like to make a small savanna with their families that they could take home. As we discussed the idea, one child commented, “We will have to teach them (our families), because they don’t know how to make one”.
All of the children agreed that they would need to be
the “teachers” and that it would be helpful if they created
instructions for their families to follow.
We combined the children's words with photos to
create instructions that both the children and their
families could read.
Winter Harvest Fest was a wonderful morning - a time to celebrate the children's work and their love of learning and discovery!
This is the the third and perhaps the final chapter of our exploration of measurement. When the teachers observed children comparing their heights in the mirror in November, they had no idea that this interest would eventually lead them to research the African savanna in February and March. They also did not know the important role this exploration would play in creating a strong sense of community among the JK children, or that the children would eventually take on the role of “teachers” and create habitats that connected school and home in a tangible and meaningful way. This “journey into the unknown” is one of the joys of teaching in a Reggio-inspired classroom. Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio Emilia preschools and infant-toddler centers, described this way of teaching and learning with children at a seminar for teachers in 1993:
“Children are not at all like this, predictable. But sometimes schools function as if they were; these are schools with no joy… Schools can never be always predictable. We need to be open to to what takes place and be able to change our plans and go with what might grow at that very moment both inside the child and inside ourselves.”
“Children are not at all like this, predictable. But sometimes schools function as if they were; these are schools with no joy… Schools can never be always predictable. We need to be open to to what takes place and be able to change our plans and go with what might grow at that very moment both inside the child and inside ourselves.”