Our Evolving Work on Water

Young Children as Advocates

Dana Bentley, Beginner North Teacher

Betty Chan, Beginner North Teacher

Focusing Our Knowledge, Incorporating New Information: Our Evolving Work on Water

What do we know?

Today in BNorth we began to delve deeper into our knowledge about water, and the need for water in the world. We began this discussion by sharing our knowledge, framing our discussion around the questions:

Who has water?

Who does not have water?

Why?

We began by focusing on our knowledge about the water in our lives:

Jace: I have water. I get them from the pipes.

Joe: I got the water from the pipes.

Christopher: You get water from pipes.

Eleanor: I use the water for boiling and sometimes to drink.

Thomas: I get water from the pipes.

Charlie: Sometimes when I use water to cook when it gets hot it gets to steam and that’s one of the 3 stages. It has 2 more. I think they are …I remember ice but I don’t remember the other. Just regular water.

Rosemary: After steam it’s ice?

Charlie: Umm no. It bubbles when its boiling.

Shifting to the Global

We then refocused the conversation on the broader world, wondering:

Who does not have water?

Why?

Shreya: The Water Princess does not have water but I have water and I get water from the pipes and the pipes are in the sink and the sink sprays water in the cup for me to drink.

Rosemary: So you can’t drink water out of a lake because it’s not clean so it’s the people that work at the pipes they clean it out. They clean out the dirty things so you can drink and they put it in the pipes and it sends it to your house.

Sydney: I do not have water because I lost my water bottle and it’s at after care.

Rosemary: Everything needs water. Not like paper and other things but things that are nature and alive need water because water helps nature grow and water people drink.

Eleanor: Well animals that live in the ocean, they need water because they need to swim around or they can’t…

We thought about Eleanor’s comment and wondered,

Can we drink water from the ocean?

Rosemary: No, because it has salt in it.

Eleanor: Or it has chemicals.

Shreya: Animals and everyone needs water so they can shower and plants can grow and sea animals. We cant drink it from the ocean water because it might have germs.   The animals might stick their tongues out and the water you get might be the water that touches the animals tongue.

Nyla: And you cant drink ocean water because the animals in the sea can pee in it and that’s why you have to wash it before you drink it.

Water Needs: A Story of Cape Town

We then shared some initial information about Cape Town.  We shared that Cape Town is a real city, that has had very little rain in the past years. People need water, and they are running out.  We explained that all of the people are only allowed to use a little bit of water every day.  We learned that they will run out of water very soon, and that day is called Day Zero.  After hearing a bit about Cape Town, we had some questions and comments:

Charlie: Are there big lakes there?

We wondered, Are there big lakes in that part of Africa?

Charlie: No because there is not lakes.

Rosemary: In the jungle there are lakes but they are dirty.

Planning for Action

At this point in the conversation, the children naturally turned to solutions they could provide.  They shared their ideas, as well as some concerns they had. 

Shreya: You could give them (people in Cape Town) some water since we already have our own sinks we can give them some of our water.

Christopher: But then we’ll waste some of ours.

Rosemary: But we have tons of water and maybe some snow.

Christopher: What if it runs out?

Thomas: Can they just go get some at the grocery store?

We thought about this and wondered, Do you think the stores in Cape Town have a lot of water?

Thomas: I think all the people already took all the water from the store.  So, there could also be this shuttle.  We could-every time we come in the school, just take a little bit of water.  Then we could deliver the water to Africa. I saw these planes that are delivery planes that go all over the world. It has a mail symbol. We can go deliver the water as a field trip!

Eleanor: Somebody can tell everybody that lives in Cambridge to get a little it of water and send it. But we have to put those waters, one part to the other. After we can make a whole cup.

Offering More Information

With the children thinking critically about solutions to this issue, we wanted to offer a bit more information about work that is being done in Africa. We shared a bit more about Georgie Badeil (the Water Princess), and the wells that are being dug in schools. We looked at some images, and shared what we know about wells.

Bennett: You pump it and goes into the bucket and you take it back.

Christopher: You twist the thing and it goes down and goes in.

Rosemary: It comes from the lake.

Tom: I saw this before in a book. The well was so deep you need a bucket and you need a rope to pull, pull, pull.

Shreya: If Africa is so hot, why don’t they have water?

Jace: If water was so hot it dries.

Charlie: It’s so sandy and hot so the water evaporates.

Rosemary: Maybe a long time ago they had a lot and now they don’t.

Moving Forward

We have brought in some new texts as resources for better understanding water, and will be exploring some of the outreach projects that are a part of the book The Water Princess. We have also connected with the fifth graders, who are also exploring this issue from different lenses.  They will be joining us on Friday to share some of their knowledge and experience.  We are excited to see where this work will lead us!

Emerging Work: Global Education in the Early Years

Young Children as Advocates

Dana Bentley, Beginner North Teacher

Betty Chan, Beginner North Teacher

Over the past week we have been doing some critical reading of the text The Water Princess. Through our readings, and critical thinking about this book, we are working on several different issues, and some fascinating plans are emerging. We would like to share with you some conversation that emerged from the book, and our curricular thinking around these discussions.

Re-Reading, Re-Telling, and Thinking Critically

What do we know about The Water Princess?  What is important to know about this story?

Alex: When they collect the water it was dirty.
Christopher: They don’t have any sinks.

Joe: That there is real pictures of the water princess.

Audrey: Those are people who are actually getting real water.

Gia: They boil it to get it clean.

Nyla: They have to walk so far.

Alex: When they rested, they ate the shea nuts and we don’t know what shea nuts are.

Thomas: We do know about chestnuts.

Teacher Reflection

In this retelling of our memories we are working on several elements of learning. We are working on comprehension, illuminating essential components of the story, and integrating our memories with the memories of others. When engaging deeply with a text, we read it many times, developing deep understandings, questions, and critical questions that can only emerge from developing strong relationships with a work.

Emergent Curriculum and Combating Stereotypes

Why are we reading The Water Princess?

Gia: Shreya's Word Wizard was "princess" and people were talking about princesses, the ones which were not what Shreya drew. So Shreya is right about some princesses but some are not like that.
Audrey: Everyone was talking about princesses like Mulan and Moana.

Thomas: It’s just like Wonder Woman.

Eleanor: It’s the water princess.

Audrey: It means she can go in the water.

Teacher Reflection

This question and the following responses exemplify the ways that provocations in the classroom inspire children’s critical thinking, and how those ideas and discussions are then reframed as curriculum.  Through the practice of Word Wizard, a complex discussion about the highly gendered construct of “princess” emerged. The children offered different perspectives on this concept; we as teachers used this as a inspiration to begin problematizing the stereotype through rich discussion and literature, such as The Water Princess. The children see themselves, their story, and their questions reflected in the ever-evolving curriculum challenging them to engage authentically with anti-bias work.

Connecting with the Larger World: Global Education in Early Childhood

Is this story happening now, or a long time ago?

Tom: It's a long time ago.  Because there is no airplanes in the desert and the desert is not near the earth.

Gia: I think it’s a long, long time ago. Because princesses were a long, long time and they are now extinct.

Eleanor: She couldn’t control the water. It’s the only thing she could not control.

Nyla: I think it’s real because princesses are alive right now. And I heard you say it was now.

Joe: It was a long time ago but not really. Because it was like this long.

Audrey: It was a really, really long time ago. Because the book makes it seem a really long time ago. It was real. It seems like it was really long. It might be right now.

Shreya: it was a long, long time ago because maybe then they don’t know yet if that’s its true but they know a little but of that.

Eleanor: The book is a long time ago because those houses don’t look like what they are now.

Audrey: We can go to the supermarket and get that we are lucky. Since we have a supermarket, we can go and we don’t have to walk

Thomas: We can bring all the water jugs we don’t need and bring to goodwill and they can have it. It sells it to kids and people that are homeless that don’t have money!

Teacher Reflection

We framed this question because we want to support the children in understanding the larger world and needs beyond their own. When reading books such as these, it is easy for the children to distance themselves with ideas of “long, long ago” because global realities are so far from their experiences.  Through these conversations, we work with the children to understand their thinking, and to help them develop an age-appropriate awareness of larger needs in the world and the ways they might have an impact.

Identifying an Issue, Making a Plan: Initial Conversations in Global Projects

At this point, we chose to share some information with the children.  Beginners North was awarded an Urban Connections Grant for the 2017-2018 year, entitled Young Children as Advocates.  We have been working with the children over the course of the year, looking for the ways in which advocacy would emerge from their work.  We shared this information with them, explaining:

We got something called a grant. This means that we have a little bit of money and we have to use it for our class to help people. We have been worrying about this, and wondering what we should do
with the money.  We have been wondering about how you would like to help.  What do you think? What are your ideas?

Nyla: We could go to the supermarket and buy all those things, and then we can donate them to places and to kids who walk (like in the Water Princess).  And if we have leftovers, we can just go to the supermarket and buy more stuff.  In the book they have no water and no food.  Oh wait, I think they have food!
Gia: They have shea nuts.

Eleanor We can’t go to the supermarket. We have to go on a long field trip and we have to go on a school bus to a supermarket. It would take a long time. Also, kids might want to buy food for themselves!

Tom: I don’t think that it would be long. I know a market.

Thomas: The teachers won’t buy you something because they are teachers. Teachers don’t buy stuff.  Remember those money boxes  that we made? (referring to our Halloween UNICEF boxes) 

Eleanor: People that want their money to come to this class, you can give it to them and they can give it you back.  Then they can come to this class.

Thomas: We could bring it (money) to the delivery plane and it could fly to Africa.

Shreya: We could. Sometimes I see a truck that sells me some mail. I think maybe we could mail the water to the girls. And the people that need it. And it put it in the mail airplane and because I see it when I was at a beach.

Joe: So you should actually if people give you more money then you will get a lot of groceries. For our class in case we run out.

Nyla: We could donate the money to the shop people and we could get all the food and people need and deliver it to Africa and every other kid that needs it. And if I had a little more money I could deliver it to the school and we could add it.

Alex: The people that don’t have food are the poor people. Poor means you don’t have a lot of money and drinks.

Eleanor: Maybe we could like take a field trip and then donate some money.

Teacher reflection

To begin this conversation, we presented the children with a genuine problem/question, framing them as problem solvers and planners. This process supports children in engaging in deep critical thinking, as they are given real information, framed within their understandings of real issues in the world. The authenticity inherent in this process frames children as leader and change makers in the world. In these early conversations, you will notice that we give children the flexibility to express all of their ideas.  If you listen closely to the conversation, they are offering perspectives and plans, shifting their own thinking, and coming closer to developing cohesive thinking about social action.  Our conversation closed with the children noticing, “We have lots of different ideas!  But only a little bit of money.”  There was silence in the room, soon followed by Eleanor’s voice:

“We could put our ideas all together!”

This solution was met with enthusiasm from the rest of the class.  We look forward to the unfolding of this important work in Beginners North.