studio learning

For some reason many educators and adults compartmentalize learning into neat categories...language, math, science, art, etc., creating curriculums and units to isolate and address each one in turn. But learning seldom occurs within the confines of our tidy disciplines.  Learning is leggy and expansive.  It opens some doors and closes others.  It draws on everything we know and requires us to stretch our thinking and make new discoveries.

The corn explorations in the studio are a perfect example of this.  The children have been busily prying each kernel off the cob, strengthening their hand and pincer grip as they do, which indirectly prepares them for writing.  They are examining shape and color in order to draw and paint their interpretations.   Whenever a significant number of kernels are amassed, counting ensues.  Pictured above is an extension of counting that happened this week.  Additionally we have made corn bread, sautéed corn and corn on the cob and soon there will be corn tortilla making and more.

And that's just one of the many things happening in the learning lives of the children.  I am astonished by how much they learn, all the time.