DUMPING ROCKS

I have shelves next to the sand and water table.  Those shelves hold the provisions for the play at the table.  The provisions change depending on the medium and the apparatus.

One of the things I like to include on the shelves of Hodgepodge and Doohickies is a container---or two---of rocks.

You can well imagine what happens to those rocks on any given day.  They all get dumped into the table.

But is there really anything wrong with dumping?  That is surely an elemental operation for children and probably goes along with the need to transport objects in and out of the table (Axiom #1 in the righthand column of this blog).

How do children move beyond dumping?  It seems that dumping for some children is their only modus operandi. However, the dumping may in fact lead to a whole host of other ventures, often unpredictable.  To be sure, sometimes the rocks are just transported to another part of the table or onto the apparatus and left there with little or no purpose.  However, the "just lying around" state of the loose rocks offers invitations for children to experiment.  Does the rock fit in this container?

When the rocks are within easy access, they can be appropriated for ingredients or decorations in cooking such things as cakes.

Can you see the children's sense of aesthetics?  They have arranged smaller rocks of similar size around the large rock in the center.

Some of the operations fostered by the invitation of rocks lying around involve a more complex set of actions.  In the following video, watch how the child figures out how to catch the rock in her ceramic bowl after failing twice.

How to catch a rock from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

From her laugh, you can tell she is pleased with her endeavor even when it doesn't work the first two times.  It looks so simple to us as adults, but what a great experiment in trajectory.

Here is a slightly more complicated experiment in trajectory using a rock.  The child tries to lob one of those loose rocks into the long cardboard tube.  He misses the first time, but is successful on the second try.

Target practice from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

To me it looks like a form of target practice.  The child has a rock and he wants to get it in a hole at a distance.  Look at the amount of regulated motion it takes to get the rock in the white cardboard tube.  Would you have let a child throw the rock in his attempt to get it in the tube?

In one child's hands, two loose rocks become a musical instrument; they are the percussion for his rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

Rock star from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

He starts out with a fast tempo and it just accelerates from there.  Do I dare call him a rock star?

Here is one final invitation to play fostered by the rocks just lying around.  A child picks up two loose rocks from the table.  She starts to smack the rocks together and to her surprise, she gets a light brown powder.  She is cooking and the powder turns out to be a cinnamon topping.

Cinnamon from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

What motivates this child to choose two rocks from the table and then to start smacking them together?  I do not think she expects to get a powder.  Once she gets the powder, though, there is no stopping her.   

There is an interesting sequel to this child's discovery.  A friend takes note of her actions and tries to get powder by picking up two rocks from the table and smashing them together.  No matter how hard he tries, he cannot get powder from his rocks.

Smashing rocks from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

It would seem that there is a lot of potential in those loose rocks as the children try to realize their ideas.  And in realizing their ideas, they are combining many other elements offered at the table such as the white sand, the apparatus, the pots and the actions of their friends.      

If all these ventures started with dumping, then dumping must be like setting the table---a messy, chaotic, serendipitous table.