Freedom to try things

When I read these days, I look for phrases or sentences that have potential meaning for play at the sensory table. In the book The Wonder of Learning: The Hundred Languages of Children published by Reggio Children, I found a sentence that I would like to see if it has such a meaning. The sentence is in the section on The enchantment of writing on page 107.

                  Freedom to try things makes our thinking less timid, and freer; and
                  supports not only "doing" but also "creating."

In this section of the book, they document how the children experiment with mark-making, letters and words to provoke children's thinking about multiple ways to express their ideas.

Children's exploration of mark-making, letters and words is their context.  My context for looking at their stated hypothesis is the following sensory table apparatus: the Fun house mirror.  (You can follow the link to see how I made the mirror.)

The fun house mirrors consists of a wavy, plexiglass mirror mounted on a Channel board apparatus.  (Again, you can follow the link to see how I made the channel board.)

One of the fundamental precepts of the sensory table area in my classroom is that the children have a broad license to explore the apparatus, the materials and the medium.  In other words, they have the freedom to try things.  Does that make them less timid?  Does that support "doing" and "creating?"

In the picture below, the child moves his head closer and from side-to-side and even sticks out his tongue.   

In essence, he is playing with his image by looking in the wavy mirror.  It is transient and ephemeral, but he has the power to change how he can see himself.

Since this is an incline and there is water in the sensory table, children pour water down the mirror.  And children find many ways to pour the water.  Sometimes they only pour a little at a time.

The child above pours the water in a steady stream from her measuring cup.  That allows her to see how the water flowing over the mirror changes her image.  And the person on the other side of the apparatus has a different perspective that includes seeing the other child's face through the rippling water as it hits the mirror.

In the picture below, the child pours a lot of water from a five gallon bucket as fast as he can. 

This child is not so interested in playing with his image.  He seems to be looking at the water splashing up against the side of the incline.  Is he testing the capacity of the incline to handle the amount and speed of the water gushing from his bucket?  Is he testing his own physical ability---strength, coordination and balance---to pour water from such a big bucket?

Some children like to experiment to see how common objects travel down the wavy incline, sometimes with some surprising results.  In the video below, one child observes how a pink plastic cup travels down the wavy incline and another child watches how a long-neck bottle goes down the incline.


What rolls down the fun house mirror from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

The child with the pink cup first sees that the cup slide and then, as it gets turned around, roll off the incline.  The child with the long-neck bottle first sees the bottle roll and then, as it gets turned around, slide off the end of the incline.

Here is another video of a child rolling an object down the wavy incline.  However, she is using a clear plastic tube as a tool to both push and catch the object, a yellow vehicle.


A tube and a car on an incline from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

With her first attempt to catch the vehicle, the tube actually stops the vehicle because of the speed of the vehicle and the angle at which she holds the tube.  She successfully catches the vehicle on the second try because the car is traveling faster and she raises the angle of the tube.

The freedom to explore this apparatus definitely fostered a lot of "doing" and "creating."  However, I  do think that freedom to explore is not enough to make children's thinking less timid.   I think that the provocation that is offered to the children has to be one that is both inviting and intriguing.  Not only that, but the child's prior experience and current skill set will also play a role in how timid their thinking may be.  Not every child is going to try to pour the water from a five-gallon pail and not every child is going to try to catch a car with a plastic tube.  Maybe freedom to try things also means freedom not to try things and timid is a more cautious way to "do" and "create."