The Visiting Dragonfly
On Friday, we had a special visitor! I noticed a dragonfly flying through the yard. I assumed it would fly off, but I followed it with my eyes and saw it land on the oregano plant. I called over some children, asking them to be quiet and stay back so we didn't disturb the dragonfly, but it stayed for a long time! The children were very interested in looking at it, examining it, and trying to talk to it, with one child using a pipe and saying "Hello Dragonfly!" After a little while, the dragonfly flew up to the apricot tree and stayed there. The children took turns being lifted up to get a closer look. They made several comments about it:
It's smiling.
Do you want the leaf?
It'll jump and jump and jump and fly!
It has that big body and a little mouth.
I want to give it an apricot.
Can I feed the dragonfly?
Our school invites these spontaneous opportunities to explore and be curious. In this experience, I saw several children interested for an extended period of time, watching and talking about the dragonfly. The children showed that they know the dragonfly needs food and offered it food, they made observations about the dragonfly, and asked questions about it. These skills are very important for building science learning and science thinking; being able to ask questions and offer suggestions is a foundation for the scientific method. By offering it food, the children are demonstrating their empathy and understanding that living things have basic needs that they can meet (food, shelter, water). We love to take advantage of these experiences at FPNS; while there is no worksheet to show the learning, we know the learning and the interest is absolutely there. The children also learn that their interests are shared by the adults in their lives and that we value the things that the children see as important.
