seeds glorious seeds!

So you may recall the seed study that began earlier in the year, well it's back!  T was in the studio examining the seed chart when he asked, "Angelina do you know how many seeds there are that you can eat?", I didn't!  So we decided to do some research!

A few others became interested in the question as well and soon we discovered a lot about the various seeds we eat, things I had never really thought about myself.

Like, did you know that beans are seeds and grains are seeds and of course nuts are seeds and corn is made up of seeds and coconuts are seeds and more.  Wow!  We were astonished as we considered all the different foods that are composed of seeds.

They recorded their findings on paper and then I remembered that I had a stash of beans tucked away in the studio.  What luck! I pulled them out of storage, much to the enthusiasm of my friends who eagerly examined the different kinds of seeds/beans.

J asked where the beans came from?  I said I didn't know that answer either.  We researched it together and again we excitedly discovered new things about seeds, like: black eyed peas are from North Africa and Mung beans are from China and the beans found in the Americas appear to have originated in Peru.  We discovered that people have been eating beans for at least 7,500 years. WOW!  Eager to communicate their new learning the children wrote down the name of each variety of bean and its place of origin.  J offered to draw the continent of origin and then he went to his classroom to procure the soft globe to examine and photograph the various regions to further our bean identification.

As class came to a close, they made the decision to host a seed-celebration in the studio!  So next week we will be making and tasting beans from various regions and we will be making corn bread (from other seeds!) and inviting other friends and classes to join in our enthusiastic seed study!

This study is a beautiful example of Reggio and Montessori working together in tandem.  The children's comfort with symbols, writing and classification along with their experience researching and expressing themselves with various tools of representation allowed this study to progress at a rapid pace.  I didn't ask them to write, they asked for paper so they could write.  I didn't ask them to find countries and continents, their experience with geography in the classrooms provided them with the necessary foundation on which to build their study.  I can hardly wait for next weeks seed celebration!!!