Learning Stories
Sample Learning Story
Ivan the Cook!
What Happened:
I noticed Ivan trying to cut pieces of wooden fruit in the Home Area. His face was tense with concentration and he kept looking over at another child who had multiple pieces stuck together with Velcro and was able to cut them apart successfully. Several times, Ivan dropped his pieces on the floor and then brought them back to the table to try again. He didn’t seem to have noticed that Dylan wasn’t actually cutting the wood, but cutting pieces apart by separating the Velcro. Curious to see how Ivan would respond, I placed a wooden banana (3 pieces velcroed together) on his plate. He looked over at Dylan again and then immediately cut the banana successfully into pieces. A huge smile appeared on Ivan’s face and he proceeded to collect more pieces that he could stick together and cut apart. He stayed there for the next twenty minutes, calmly cutting fruit and singing to himself.
What it Means:
Ivan, you are patient, observant and persistent. You knew exactly what you wanted to do and you kept on trying. I saw you watching Dylan cutting fruit and trying to figure out why yours wasn’t working the same way. But as soon as I showed you the banana made up of three sections, you immediately recognized the difference between what you had been doing before and what Dylan had been doing. Your face lit up like a lightbulb when you made the connection. It was so nice to see how relaxed and satisfied you seemed to be once you had mastered the challenge. The greatest learning happens when you don’t give up and believe that difficult things can be mastered!
Opportunities and Possibilities:
Ivan seemed so pleased to have learned this new skill of cutting with a knife. We know that his father is a cook and wonder if that is why Ivan was so determined to accomplish his goal. Tomorrow we will bring in a variety of fruit that children can use to make a fruit salad for snack. Strawberries, melon, bananas and pears are all soft enough for young children to cut with a dinner knife. If the children enjoy the activity then perhaps we will help the children prepare a recipe so that they can make fruit salad at home with their families. Once he masters the soft fruit, Ivan may also be interested in cutting harder things like apples or carrots.
Connections to EDU Documents
What Happened:
I noticed Ivan trying to cut pieces of wooden fruit in the Home Area. His face was tense with concentration and he kept looking over at another child who had multiple pieces stuck together with Velcro and was able to cut them apart successfully. Several times, Ivan dropped his pieces on the floor and then brought them back to the table to try again. He didn’t seem to have noticed that Dylan wasn’t actually cutting the wood, but cutting pieces apart by separating the Velcro. Curious to see how Ivan would respond, I placed a wooden banana (3 pieces velcroed together) on his plate. He looked over at Dylan again and then immediately cut the banana successfully into pieces. A huge smile appeared on Ivan’s face and he proceeded to collect more pieces that he could stick together and cut apart. He stayed there for the next twenty minutes, calmly cutting fruit and singing to himself.
What it Means:
Ivan, you are patient, observant and persistent. You knew exactly what you wanted to do and you kept on trying. I saw you watching Dylan cutting fruit and trying to figure out why yours wasn’t working the same way. But as soon as I showed you the banana made up of three sections, you immediately recognized the difference between what you had been doing before and what Dylan had been doing. Your face lit up like a lightbulb when you made the connection. It was so nice to see how relaxed and satisfied you seemed to be once you had mastered the challenge. The greatest learning happens when you don’t give up and believe that difficult things can be mastered!
Opportunities and Possibilities:
Ivan seemed so pleased to have learned this new skill of cutting with a knife. We know that his father is a cook and wonder if that is why Ivan was so determined to accomplish his goal. Tomorrow we will bring in a variety of fruit that children can use to make a fruit salad for snack. Strawberries, melon, bananas and pears are all soft enough for young children to cut with a dinner knife. If the children enjoy the activity then perhaps we will help the children prepare a recipe so that they can make fruit salad at home with their families. Once he masters the soft fruit, Ivan may also be interested in cutting harder things like apples or carrots.
Connections to EDU Documents
- Regulating attention, emotions and behaviour (ELECT, 2.1)
- Fine motor skills-tool use (ELECT 5.3)
- Ivan was deeply engaged in what he was doing because cutting the fruit was a challenge he wanted to master. His sense of well-being was apparent once he was successful and sang to himself while practicing his new skill.(HDLH)