A teachable moment

Oh, this is going to be a great story!:

At our Sensory table today, we filled a tub with water to clean cranberries to make cranberry sauce. The children had great fun putting their hands in the water and feeling the cranberries between their fingers ... but the real magic came when all the cranberries were taken out and it was time to empty the tub.

Because the tub is so large, it sits on a stand and there is a plug at the bottom to empty the water from. As I did so, some children had stayed to watch the water go down. One noticed the shape of the water's movement as it went down the plug - it was exactly like water going down a drain, spiraling around.

Now, I see this phenomenon every day. I don't ask questions about it. Alas, I am no longer four years old. Luckily, I hang out with young children enough that they remind me how great it is to be so young and wide-eyed and wondering at the world. Because as everyone else went about cleaning up from the morning's activity, one boy - Bennett - tapped my leg and asked me: "What is the water doing there?"

"Oh," I responded, "It's spiraling and spinning down the plug."

"That's like my potty!"

"Yes, that's what water does anytime it goes from being in a really big container down into a really tiny hole."

"Why does it do that?"

[Ach! Killer! I *love* four-year-olds!]

"You know, Bennett, I don't think I could tell you why. I don't know."

[It's true. I don't know. But I don't want to just leave him with that. I want to follow this interest, keep it alive and fresh and active ...]

"...Wait, Bennett, I have an idea. Maybe we can figure it out."

I went to the kitchen area where everything was prepared for making cranberry sauce and made a bee line for the cinnamon container. I returned to the tub, the water still draining into a more manageable bucket, and let loose, sprinkling cinnamon all over the water's surface.

I didn't really know what was going to happen, but I knew it was just going to have to be amazing, if not because it was science at its purest, it was a four-year-old that inspired the idea. Sure enough, more children came over to watch the movement of the water in the entire tub, and to marvel at the phenomenon of how rapidly it began to move in circles as it approached the plug at one end. I was amazed: with the help of the cinnamon, it was remarkably easy to see the entire pattern of the water's movement.

"Why do you think the water makes that spiral down at the plug like that?" I asked.

Several children just kept watching, as if in a trance. I could tell Bennett was really trying to figure it out, make sense of it. "I don't know," he said, "I just don't know."

"That's okay," I said, "I don't know, either. But it's really cool, isn't it."

"Yeah. It's really really really REALLY COOL!" he bursted.

"Well, you'll just have to keep thinking about it, and I bet an idea will come to you."

"Yeah..."


What can I say? Another day in pre-school...