It's sometimes tricky to keep inquiry local. When children are thinking about ideas that are really big, like weather or environment, it can be challenging to find ways to connect to the content in a personal way. The Kindergarten Teachers found a neat tool for their group who is thinking about the environment around our school- a deer camera. This weather-proof outdoor camera takes photos which are triggered by movement. It allows us to see what's happening when we aren't at school, and it has caught some surprising images (some of which have been made 'auto awesome' by google)..
John Dewey was the educational philosopher who influenced schools to teach with things that children could see and touch. He said;
“There is no such thing as educational value in the abstract. The notion that some subjects and methods and that acquaintance with certain facts and truths possess educational value in and of themselves is the reason why traditional education reduced the material of education so largely to a diet of predigested materials.”
“There is no such thing as educational value in the abstract. The notion that some subjects and methods and that acquaintance with certain facts and truths possess educational value in and of themselves is the reason why traditional education reduced the material of education so largely to a diet of predigested materials.”
Wow! The camera caught some deer and a raccoon. I love the idea of the children being able to see what the house sees when they are not present, to be able to imagine the world of Sabot carrying on and changing when they are at home. As Mary Tobin notes in the Kindergarten blog, http://wordpress.sabotatstonypoint.org/kindergarten/2014/04/18/taking-on-the-perspective-of-others/, the children are pushing the developmental limits of what Piaget terms the "egocentric stage." Their work in understanding the perspective the others (even the point of view of a house) is crucial to building the capacity for empathy.
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