Random Learning.... (a.m.)

Yesterday, the Kiddoes and I ended up on a very strange learning expedition. It began after I asked a child to take a piece of gum out of her mouth. I asked the Kiddoes if they knew why I requested this. When I saw puzzled looks, I told them it scared me when I saw anyone chewing and talking/playing at the same time. I was worried someone would choke. Of course, instantly the next question that was asked was, "How do you choke?" I talked to the Kiddoes about their windpipe, and how when we breath in and out, air travels into our lungs and then back out. I then told them about their esophagus, and how food travels from their mouth to their stomach. I quickly drew a picture and showed how their was a flap that automatically closes over the windpipe when they are eating, enabling food to travel the right way. However, I told the Kiddoes, sometimes if we are not thinking about what we are doing, the flap may not close, and food may get stuck in the windpipe, and this is why we choke. At that moment, I couldn't remember the flap was called the epiglottis, so I asked the Kiddoes what they thought the flap was called. "The flippy flap", one child responded. I quickly challenged the Kiddoes that if they had a question, and didn't know the answer, how could they find the answer. We decided we could look in a book. Off to the library we went! On our way, we ran into Ms. Fiege (speech and language pathologist) and she was able to answer our question. When we got back to the room, we had a great time diving into a body book that displayed how the epiglottis worked! Much to our delight today, Ms. Fiege brought in a model of the windpipe for the Kiddoes to explore! They were ecstatic!



















While examining the model, I told the Kiddoes some of scientific names for parts of the throat. We laughed that one of the names was 8 claps!!! I was asked why some of the names sounded so strange. I explained many scientific words came from a different language called Latin. Of course, the Kiddoes wanted to know more when I continued to explain many English words actually came from the Latin language. Once on the spot though, I struggled to think of an example!!! So off  we went to visit Mrs. Wills (the book and word expert) to see if she could give us an example. Mrs. Wills showed us her great BIG dictionaries and was able to give many examples of English words that were derived from other languages. During centre time, some of the Kiddoes and I explored the origins of different words.

I love tapping into this kind of emergent learning with the Kiddoes. I find the engagement level to always be sky high! We were able to act on random questions, figure out strategies to explore our wonders, all the while still working on emerging literacy skills.