More about photography and sunprints

In the 3-4 Garden room, the investigation into PLACE has centered around photography. The children have looked closely at many types of cameras and have gone outside with me to make cyanotypes, or sunprints. When Oliver saw the photographs of hands (he was not in that group that day), he noticed that there were also prints of grass on them. This really disturbed Oliver, it seems, because it didn't fit in with some part of his working theory of how the photographic process works.

I don't quite understand the differences in the children's hypotheses, but can see them adding and subtracting information from them each time we make prints or talk about them.

Here is a conversation about how the grass got into those pictures;
Oliver "I don't know how the grass got here, because you just washed it in the sink."
Lukas "Well, we holded really really still, and for a long time. Then the grass will just cut off, and go on here (the photo). Then we can put it in the sink.
Anna "Does the sink make the picture?"
Lukas "No. The Sun and then the grass. No. The Sun makes the grass seal on the paper."
Oliver "No. The Sun and then the sink!"
Lukas " When we put the picture in the sink, it makes a better picture."
Anna "But before when we developed the sunprints, we didn't use the sink. We used the hose, remember?"
Owen  (Referring to Adelina and Greta, who made a picture bu laying on a big sheet of sunprint paper) "When they were lying on the paper, did they get wet?"

The conversations between the three and four year old children about the photographic process allows a glimpse into their thought process. This allows me to reflect on my process -am I asking the right questions, providing the best provocations, and following through on the places where the learning is richest?