Archiv für den Monat Mai 2020

Talent for Research

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by Antonia Herberg and Hanna Vock

 

Children explore their environment by trying out, observing, making changes, observing again and drawing conclusions. This is how learning happens.

And the better and more suitable the conditions are that the child finds and that are created for it by sensible adults, the further it will progress. This is a great responsibility of parents, kindergarten teachers and school teachers.

See also:

Where Do the Extraordinary Abilities Come from? Giftedness or Superb Advancement?

and

How Do Gifted Children Learn?

However, a researcher needs some qualities to a degree that is not available to everyone.

Manuel (5;3) shows these qualities – and who knows, maybe he really wants to use them for a researching profession later on? Or maybe he will take completely different paths, but it is interesting to see how he acts as a five-year-old. Below are some observations from his kindergarten routine, presented by his kindergarten teacher.

The notes are an excerpt from the article From Clown to Expert, which is mainly about Manuel becoming more confident and developing better contact with the other children in the group.

Play with candles

In the last few days Manuel (5;3) has repeatedly taken the (Montessori) offer >lighting a candle< during free play. His attention was clearly focused on the moment when he put out the candle with the wick extinguisher. He did this very slowly each time and let the candle flare up again and again.
To give him a new opportunity to observe the extinguishing of the candle, I provided a candle, matches and a glass for him.
When he gets the candle again the next morning, I ask him if I may show him something else with the candle. Manuel looks at me attentively and agrees. I demonstrate the procedure to him once, Manuel laughs and repeats it several times. He puts his head on the table top and watches the candle go out.

I ask him if he knows why the candle goes out under the glass. He replies: „There’s no air left.“ I offer him a bigger glass. He takes it and says, „It gives her more air.“ Manuel tries it out. When I offer him a second candle, he lights both of them and puts the glasses over them at the same time with both hands and watches curiously what happens.
He asks if I have a very small glass. He extends his observation to five glasses of different sizes, sets them up in an line and one after the other he puts the glasses over the candles with rapid and coordinated movements.
After several passes he beams at me and says: „This is such fun, I’m going to use up all the matches.“

At the end of the free play I ask Manuel to show the other children in the chair circle what he has done and explain it to them. He thinks, smiles and nods.
Everyone sits in a circle, Manuel sits next to me and in front of him stands the tray with the candles, glasses and matches. The children are waiting. I ask Manuel quietly if he can tell them now what he is going to do. Manuel shakes his head, leans over to me and whispers: „You!“
I say a few sentences to the children and Manuel starts lighting the candles. Before he puts the glasses on, he looks seriously and says: „This has to be done in a hurry.“ His performance succeeds. He explains that fire needs air to burn, that there is different amounts of air in the glasses and that the candles go out one after the other. The children are attentive, listen and watch.

Manuel repeats the game with candles and glasses. He acts independently and very concentrated and makes several passes. His attention is obviously focused on putting the glasses over the candles at a fast pace in order to achieve synchrony at the start. (He has set this task for himself.) Sometimes a candle goes out. Then Manuel says „Shit!“ and starts again from the beginning.

Mortar

Manuel gets the offer to grind different raw materials with a mortar. He is concentrated and works on it for over two hours. He keeps looking closely at what is happening, what is changing in the mortar. In the circle of chairs he presents his work confidently and safely.

Manuel is still interested in the mortar. Every day, something different is pounded. He presents the results again in the chair circle and finds companions who share this passion with him.

Marguerites

On the table are white marguerites in a vase. I ask Manuel, „Do you think marguerites drink the water?“

He nods and says, „Yes, all plants need water.“ I go on asking if you can see that they’re drinking it. Manuel ponders for a moment and says, „Yes, with a magnifying glass.“ I give him a magnifier and he looks intently at the stems through the magnifying glass. After a while, I ask him if he has observed anything. He shakes his head and says, „I don’t see anything.“

I point out to him that the water in the vase is transparent, that it has no colour, and suggest that he colour it, then the flowers would have to drink coloured water. He looks at me and asks, „What happens then?“ I ask back, „What do you think might happen?“ He touches a blossom and says, „Will it turn colour?“ I ask him to try it and give him a stand with test tubes and red and black ink.

Manuel carefully fills the ink and puts two marguerites in red and black ink. Then he sits in front of them, crosses his arms and looks at the flowers. After ten (!) minutes he comes to me and says with a plaintive tone: „Nothing’s happening.“
We put the stand with the flowers on the windowsill and I invite him to do something else now and to have a look in between.

At the beginning of the circle of chairs I ask Manuel to explain to the children what he did with the flowers. He laughs and says, „Yes, I want to do that.“ Manuel tells the children with a lot of facial expressions and a loud voice about his experiment and that he is now waiting to see if anything has happened. The children listen even more attentively than at his first demonstration. Manuel speaks freely and doesn’t even pay attention to me anymore.

When about half the time in the circle of chairs is already over he jumps up and shouts: „There, it starts! One flower is already turning pink.“ Manuel is beaming and all the children look at the pink flower. When he leaves, he says, „Black takes longer.“

Flower press

Manuel comes in the morning and says: „I have to check my leaf. I’m very curious.“ A few days ago he brought a big leaf from his trip to the kindergarten and put it in the flower press.
The leaf is not dry yet. He looks at it and feels it and says, „Do you think it’s ready?“ When I say no, he says: „Then it must go back in“ and clamps it again.

***

After a superficial look at the notes, one might think: Manuel does nothing else than many other children in the kindergarten do. The difference is how he does it.

A closer look reveals: Manuel’s observations over a short period of time have shown him to be a really good researcher:

    • Exploratory urge
    • Desire to gain knowledge
    • Follow up on questions you have thought up yourself
    • Consistent interest across all days
    • Perseverance in his plans
    • Ability to communicate his research paths and results to the other children

 

Hopefully, he’ll continue to find good mentors who will
help him to maintain his motivation, to ask him good questions
and who support him in this,
to see success in his work and to further develop his researcher mentality.

 

More about Manuel:
Manuel, 5;0 Years

From Clown to Expert

Date of publication: May 2020
Copyright © Hanna Vock and Antonia Herberg, see Imprint

 

 

 

A Hen´s Egg

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by Hanna Vock

 

Scientific thinking and acting can also be practiced with very few resources.

I would like to demonstrate this with an example. In 2001 I led a play and learning group for gifted pre-school children in Düsseldorf (Germany). This offer of the Adult Education Center took place 10 times as planned, each meeting lasted one and a half hours, in the afternoon in weekly intervals.

The seven participating children were four boys and three girls aged 4;8 to 5;6 years. Except for two girls, they did not know each other, and they did not know me or the room where we met. I had to bring all the material with me and take it home each time. Despite these unfavorable conditions compared to the kindergarten, a joyful and intensive playing and learning took place.

…in short…

Seven presumably gifted pre-school children are involved with the chicken egg. They examine it thoroughly and pursue the exciting question of why eggs begin to swim in water with increasing age. And they figure it out.

We spent the 10 afternoons dealing with different topics, one of which was „The Egg“. The children should be able to explore the hen’s egg thoroughly, to make discoveries and to learn about it.

What was important to me was that the children

    • could observe changes over time,
    • should learn a way to record their observations,
    • should learn that joint reflection on what has been observed, accurate conclusions help to clarify an initially „mysterious“ question,

which are all basic scientific procedures.

The children received uncooked and cooked chicken eggs, which they could take apart and examine. The children discovered what the egg looks like inside, how it smells and feels.

All the observations the children made were collected in the group. The most important thing was an exact description and precise formulation.

It was interesting to see that the children were always specifying themselves, but also each other.

According to the information given by the children, I tried a sketch on the blackboard, which was changed again and again until the children were satisfied with the sketch. In the process, the nature and purpose of the egg components were also discussed. Afterwards the sketch was wiped away on the blackboard and the children tried to draw the discussed details from memory.

Results:
Girl, 5 years                                   Boy, 5 years                       Girl, 5 years

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the help of sketches and from photos I brought along, the details of the egg were brought together with the development of the chick in the egg.

The children puzzled about what „subject“ they would have had if the whole thing had taken place at school. (They were all still months to years away from enrolment.)

After I had listed the usual school subjects (and what is done there), they found at the end of this discussion that it must have been a mixture of natural science and German and art. I found this assessment remarkable.

To find out more about the hen’s egg, I suggested the „egg freshness test“ to the children. (The egg is fresh when it is left in a bowl of water at the bottom.)

After the children noticed that some eggs stayed on the floor, some stood up in the water and some even swam, everything revolved around the question:

Why is it so different?

The children received some important information: From their drawings of the egg structure they found out,

    • that the lime shell has small holes through which water can get out and air can get in;
    • that the egg whites and yolks feel so wet because there’s water in them.

Also:

    • that water can evaporate (go into the air) and the previously wet clothes become drier as a result (for example, clothes hung up);
    • that some things can float if you blow them up with air (for example, water wings).

They were not yet able to process this information in their minds to the point where they came up with the solution why some eggs float and some don’t.

This „egg freshness test“ should therefore keep us busy for weeks, which was not originally planned. Every week we repeated the freshness test, always with the same (marked and initially fresh) eggs and observed how the position of the egg in the water changed from week to week. The eggs endured the multiple back and forth transport and also the handling of the children until the end without breaking.

Since some of the children were keen to write on the blackboard, we also looked at the egg from this side:

The children painted ovals on the blackboard and all the other geometric shapes they could think of. They considered in which words „Ei“ (the German word for egg) occurs and wrote them (with more or less instructions) on the blackboard, partly also on paper.

In the process, I also gained incidental information about the children’s reading skills: Of the seven children, two read fluently, two spelled slowly, the others knew more or less letters.

The exchange of knowledge about the living conditions of the chickens as well as a discussion about it rounded off the topic for the time being.

But still we had the secret why some eggs do not swim and some do, not yet revealed.

At the 5th meeting, before the autumn holiday break, we repeated the egg freshness test one more time. The eggs, which were initially still quite fresh, had naturally aged. The children had observed over the weeks how the position of the eggs in the water had changed and could describe this well.

They received a prepared sheet on which the first three states were already drawn by me.

They should now draw in their assumption about how the eggs would be in the water after the holidays. After the holidays we wanted to do the test and draw the actual position.

This task challenged the children’s ability to make assumptions about future development. At the same time, they learned that observations made during the experiment can be recorded with simple sketches.

Result (boy, 5 years):

Result (girl, 5 years):

After the holidays it turned out that the children had guessed right in principle:
that the eggs had come off the ground.

However, several children now noticed that the eggs were not floating in the water, but were really swimming, i.e. partially emerged from the water. They drew this exactly.

Now it seemed to me that it was time to help the children to find out the reason for the newly acquired swimming ability of the eggs.

The question was: Why do the eggs swim now?

First we looked at our drawings of the egg’s interior again.

On the question: which part of the egg could be important for swimming? the children came to the air chamber, because they remembered the earlier comparison with swimming wings.

The next step was the question: But in the beginning, when the eggs were still fresh, they already had an air chamber and still could not swim. What happened to the eggs that they can now after all?

After the humorous remark of a five-year-old girl: „Maybe somebody blew them up“, the children, after thinking hard, came up with the idea that the air chamber might really have gotten bigger and the rest of the egg smaller.

The next helpful question was: Can anything get in and out of the egg, even if the shell is intact? Here the children remembered the fine holes in the egg shell and said yes.

The final question was: What went in and what came out?

The children said that air had probably come in and that the air bubble had become larger. Something must have come out, but what?

A brief analogy was necessary: What happens when washing is dried on a line? Answer: The water comes out. Question: Where does it go? Answer: Somehow into the air. Question: Can this also happen with an egg? Is there any water in the egg? Answer: „Yes, I think so; it feels all wet. especially the egg white.“

The children had used their little grey cells to solve a mysterious case and were visibly satisfied that they had made it.

 

Date of publication in German: May 2011
Copyright © Hanna Vock 2011, see Imprint.

Talent zum Forschen

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von Antonia Herberg und Hanna Vock

 

Kinder erforschen ihre Umwelt, indem sie vieles ausprobieren, beobachten, Änderungen vornehmen, wieder beobachten und schlussfolgern. So geschieht Lernen.

Und je besser und passender dafür die Bedingungen sind, die das Kind vorfindet und die ihm durch verständige Erwachsene geschaffen werden, desto weiter wird es damit kommen. Darin liegt eine große Verantwortung von Eltern, ErzieherInnen und LehrerInnen.

Siehe auch:

Woher kommen die außergewöhnlichen Fähigkeiten – Hochbegabung oder supergute Förderung?

und

Wie lernen hoch begabte Kinder?

Ein Forscher braucht allerdings einige Eigenschaften in einem Maße, das nicht jedem Menschen gegeben ist.

Manuel (5;3) zeigt diese Eigenschaften – und wer weiß, vielleicht hat er später tatsächlich Lust und die Möglichkeit, sie für einen Forscherberuf zu nutzen? Vielleicht wird er aber auch ganz andere Wege einschlagen, aber es ist doch interessant zu sehen, wie er als Fünfjähriger agiert.
Im Folgenden einige Beobachtungen aus seinem Kindergartenalltag, dargestellt von seiner Erzieherin. Die Notizen sind eine Auskopplung aus dem Beitrag Vom Clown zum Könner, in dem es hauptsächlich darum geht, dass Manuel selbstbewusster wird und besseren Kontakt zu den anderen Kindern der Gruppe entwickelt.

***

Spiel mit Kerzen

In den letzten Tagen hat sich Manuel (5;3) während des Freispiels wiederholt das (Montessori-) Angebot >Kerze anzünden< geholt. Seine Aufmerksamkeit galt dabei deutlich dem Moment, in dem er die Kerze mit dem Dochtlöscher ausmachte. Er tat dies jedes Mal sehr langsam und ließ die Kerze immer wieder aufflackern.
Um ihm eine neue Mögichkeit zu geben, das Verlöschen der Kerze zu beobachten, stelle ich ihm eine Kerze, Streichhölzer und ein Glas hin.
Als er sich am nächsten Morgen wieder die Kerze holt, frage ich ihn, ob ich ihm etwas anderes mit der Kerze zeigen darf. Manuel schaut mich aufmerksam an und stimmt zu. Ich demonstriere ihm einmal den Ablauf, Manuel lacht und wiederholt es gleich mehrmals. Dabei legt er den Kopf auf die Tischplatte und schaut so der Kerze beim Verlöschen zu.

Ich frage ihn, ob er weiß, warum die Kerze unter dem Glas ausgeht. Er antwortet: „Die kriegt keine Luft mehr.“ Ich biete ihm ein größeres Glas an. Er nimmt es und sagt: „Da hat sie mehr Luft.“ Manuel probiert es aus. Als ich ihm eine zweite Kerze hinstelle, zündet er beide an und stülpt die Gläser gleichzeitig beidhändig darüber und beobachtet gespannt, was geschieht.
Er fragt, ob ich auch noch ein ganz kleines Glas habe. Er baut seine Beobachtung bis auf fünf verschieden große Gläser aus, stellt sie der Reihe nach auf und stülpt mit raschen und koordinierten Bewegungen die Gläser darüber.
Nach mehreren Durchläufen strahlt er mich an und sagt: „Das macht so einen Spaß, ich werde alle Streichhölzer verbrauchen.“

Zum Ende des Freispiels bitte ich Manuel, doch den anderen Kindern im Stuhlkreis zu zeigen, was er gemacht hat, und es ihnen zu erklären. Er überlegt, lächelt und nickt.
Alle sitzen im Kreis, Manuel sitzt neben mir und vor ihm steht das Tablett mit den Kerzen, Gläsern und Streichhölzern. Die Kinder warten. Ich frage Manuel leise, ob er ihnen jetzt sagen kann, was er vorhat. Manuel schüttelt den Kopf, neigt sich zu mir und flüstert: „Du!“ Ich sage einige Sätze zu den Kindern und Manuel beginnt die Kerzen anzuzünden. Bevor er die Gläser darüberstülpt, schaut er ernst in die Runde und sagt : „Das muss jetzt zack-zack gehen.“ Seine Vorführung gelingt. Er erklärt noch, dass Feuer Luft braucht um zu brennen; dass verschieden viel Luft in den Gläsern ist und deswegen die Kerzen nacheinander ausgehen. Die Kinder sind aufmerksam, hören und schauen zu.

Am nächsten Tag wiederholt Manuel das Spiel mit den Kerzen und den Gläsern. Er agiert selbstständig und sehr konzentriert und macht mehrere Durchgänge. Sein Augenmerk liegt offensichtlich darauf, die Gläser in schnellem Tempo über die Kerzen zu stülpen, um Zeitgleichheit beim Start zu erreichen. (Diese Aufgabe hat er sich selber gestellt.)  Manchmal geht dabei eine Kerze aus. Dann sagt Manuel „Mist!“ und beginnt noch einmal von vorne.

Mörser

Manuel bekommt das Angebot, verschiedene Rohstoffe mit einem Mörser zu zermahlen. Er ist konzentriert bei der Sache und arbeitet über zwei Stunden daran. Er schaut immer wieder genau hin, was passiert, was sich im Mörser verändert. Im Stuhlkreis stellt er seine Arbeit souverän und sicher vor.

Das Mörsern interessiert Manuel weiterhin. Jeden Tag wird etwas anderes zerstoßen. Er hat die Ergebnisse wieder im Stuhlkreis vorgestellt und findet Gefährten, die diese Leidenschaft mit ihm teilen.

Margeriten

Auf dem Tisch stehen weiße Margeriten in einer Vase. Ich frage Manuel: „Meinst du, dass die Margeriten das Wasser trinken?“ Er nickt und sagt: „Ja, alle Pflanzen brauchen Wasser.“ Ich frage weiter, ob man sehen kann, dass sie es trinken. Manuel überlegt kurz und sagt: „Ja, mit einer Lupe.“ Ich gebe ihm eine Lupe und er betrachtet aufmerksam die Stängel durch die Lupe. Nach einiger Zeit frage ich ihn, ob er etwas beobachten konnte. Er schüttelt den Kopf und sagt: „Ich sehe nichts.“

Ich weise ihn darauf hin, dass das Wasser in der Vase durchsichtig ist, dass es keine Farbe hat, und schlage ihm vor, es zu färben, dann müssten die Blumen farbiges Wasser trinken. Er schaut mich an und fragt: „Was passiert dann?“ Ich frage zurück: „Was könnte passieren, was meinst du?“ Er berührt eine Blüte und sagt: „Wird die dann bunt?“ Ich fordere ihn auf, es auszuprobieren, und gebe ihm einen Ständer mit Reagenzgläsern sowie rote und schwarze Tinte.

Manuel füllt die Tinte vorsichtig ein und stellt jeweils zwei Margeriten in rote und schwarze Tinte. Dann setzt er sich davor, verschränkt die Arme und guckt die Blumen an. Nach zehn (!) Minuten kommt er zu mir und sagt mit klagendem Ton: „Da passiert nichts.“
Wir stellen den Ständer mit den Blumen auf die Fensterbank und ich lade ihn ein, jetzt etwas anderes zu tun und zwischendurch immer mal nachzuschauen.

Zu Beginn des Stuhlkreises frage ich Manuel, ob er den Kindern erklären will, was er mit den Blumen gemacht hat. Er lacht und sagt: „Ja, das will ich machen.“ Manuel erzählt den Kindern mit viel Mimik und lauter Stimme von seinem Experiment und dass er jetzt wartet, ob etwas passiert ist. Die Kinder hören noch aufmerksamer zu als bei seiner ersten Demonstration. Manuel spricht frei und beachtet mich gar nicht mehr.

Mitten im Stuhlkreis springt er auf und ruft: „Da, es fängt an! Eine Blume wird schon rosa.“ Manuel strahlt und alle Kinder schauen sich die rosa Blume an. Im Hinausgehen sagt er: „Schwarz dauert länger.“

Blumenpresse

Manuel kommt morgens herein und sagt: „Ich muss mal nach meinem Blatt sehen. Ich bin schon sehr gespannt.“ Vor einigen Tagen hat er von seinem Weg in den Kindergarten ein großes Blatt mitgebracht und in die Blumenpresse eingespannt.
Das Blatt ist noch nicht trocken. Er betrachtet und befühlt es und sagt: „Meinst du, es wäre fertig?“ Als ich verneine, sagt er: „Dann muss es wieder rein“ und spannt es erneut ein.

***

Nach oberflächlichem Blick auf die Notizen könnte man meinen: Manuel macht nichts anderes als viele andere Kinder im Kindergarten auch. Unterscheidend ist, wie er es macht.

Bei genauerem Hinsehen fällt auf: Manuel hat bei diesen Beobachtungen über eine kurze Zeit wirklich gute Anlagen zum Forschen gezeigt:

    • Forscherdrang
    • Lust am Erkenntnisgewinn
    • Selbst erdachten, weiterführenden Fragen nachgehen
    • Beständiges, tagesübergreifendes Interesse
    • Beharrlichkeit bei seinen Vorhaben
    • Fähigkeit, den anderen Kindern seine Forscherwege und -ergebnisse mitzuteilen

Hoffentlich findet er weiterhin gute Mentoren, die ihn
darin begleiten, seine Motivation zu erhalten,
ihm gute weiterführende Fragen zu stellen,
und die ihn dabei unterstützen,
bei seinem Tun Erfolge zu sehen und seine Forschermentalität weiter zu entwickeln.

Mehr zu Manuel:
Manuel, 5:0 Jahre

Vom Clown zum Könner

 

Datum der Veröffentlichung: Mai 2020
Copyright © Hanna Vock und Antonia Herberg, siehe Impressum

From Clown to Expert

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by Antonia Herberg

 

I want to help Manuel (5;3) to develop a different role in his group of children. Very often he is in the role of the clown and the troublemaker.
My way will be to offer him situations in which he comes across to the other children with his interests and abilities and lets his positive potential come to fruition. I also hope to strengthen him by creating friendships.

Manuel should be given opportunities to pursue his urge to explore and learn. At the same time, I want to show him ways to let his things benefit the group of children, to get involved, to let himself and the other children experience that he is an enrichment.
This includes the offer that he presents his results in the chair circle. There should also be an attempt to involve other children in his activities.

A first observation and assessment of Manuel can be found here: Manuel, 5;0 years.

1.

In the last few days Manuel (5;3) has repeatedly taken the (Montessori) offer >lighting a candle< during free play. His attention was clearly focused on the moment when he put out the candle with the wick extinguisher. He did this very slowly each time and let the candle flare up again and again.
To give him a new opportunity to observe the extinguishing of the candle, I provided a candle, matches and a glass for him.
When he gets the candle again the next morning, I ask him if I may show him something else with the candle. Manuel looks at me attentively and agrees. I demonstrate the procedure to him once, Manuel laughs and repeats it several times. He puts his head on the table top and watches the candle go out.

I ask him if he knows why the candle goes out under the glass. He replies: „There’s no air left.“ I offer him a bigger glass. He takes it and says, „It gives her more air.“ Manuel tries it out. When I offer him a second candle, he lights both of them and puts the glasses over them at the same time with both hands and watches curiously what happens.
He asks if I have a very small glass. He extends his observation to five glasses of different sizes, sets them up in an line and one after the other he puts the glasses over the candles with rapid and coordinated movements.
After several passes he beams at me and says: „This is such fun, I’m going to use up all the matches.“

At the end of the free play I ask Manuel to show the other children in the chair circle what he has done and explain it to them. He thinks, smiles and nods.
Everyone sits in a circle, Manuel sits next to me and in front of him stands the tray with the candles, glasses and matches. The children are waiting. I ask Manuel quietly if he can tell them now what he is going to do. Manuel shakes his head, leans over to me and whispers: „You!“
I say a few sentences to the children and Manuel starts lighting the candles. Before he puts the glasses on, he looks seriously and says: „This has to be done in a hurry.“ His performance succeeds. He explains that fire needs air to burn, that there is different amounts of air in the glasses and that the candles go out one after the other. The children are attentive, listen and watch.
I thank Manuel and hand over the chair circle to a pre-school child. Then I leave the room and the children play under the guidance of the big boy for about 45 minutes. When I return, I see Manuel playing in the circle with a satisfied and happy face.

Remark of the course leader:
He begins to share his insights. And he experiences success: first in his investigations, which lead him to new insights, and then the social success that the children follow him attentively during his presentation. This brings good feelings.

2.

Manuel repeats the game with candles and glasses. He acts independently and very concentrated and makes several passes. His attention is obviously focused on putting the glasses over the candles at a fast pace in order to achieve synchrony at the start. (He has set this task for himself.) Sometimes a candle goes out. Then Manuel says „Shit!“ and starts again from the beginning.

Opposite Manuel sits Ole, who is the same age, working with the electric box. After some time Manuel observes Ole, who does not succeed in his task. Manuel gets up, walks around the table, takes the screwdriver out of Ole’s hand and builds an electric circuit. Then he sits back down on his chair, looks at Ole and says smiling: „That’s how it works.“ They talk about their work. Manuel gets up again after a few minutes, stands next to Ole, then fetches his chair, sits down and watches Ole in silence for a quarter of an hour. Then they both tidy up and have breakfast together. They happily talk about what they like to eat.

Note from the course leader:
Two researchers and inventors have found each other!

3.

Manuel gets the offer to grind different raw materials with a mortar. He is concentrated and works on it for over two hours. He keeps looking closely at what is happening, what is changing in the mortar. In the circle of chairs he presents his work confidently and safely.

Note from the course leader:
Oh! What progress after just one positive result. He has learned how to present. Here, too, ease of learning is evident.

4.

On the table are white daisies in a vase. I ask Manuel, „Do you think daisies drink the water?“ He nods and says, „Yes, all plants need water.“ I go on asking if you can see that they’re drinking it. Manuel ponders for a moment and says, „Yes, with a magnifying glass.“ I give him a magnifier and he looks intently at the stems through the magnifying glass. After a while, I ask him if he has observed anything. He shakes his head and says, „I don’t see anything.“

I point out to him that the water in the vase is transparent, that it has no colour, and suggest that he colour it, then the flowers would have to drink coloured water. He looks at me and asks, „What happens then?“ I ask back, „What do you think might happen?“ He touches a blossom and says, „Will it turn colour?“ I ask him to try it and give him a stand with test tubes and red and black ink.

Manuel carefully fills the ink and puts two daisies in red and black ink. Then he sits in front of them, crosses his arms and looks at the flowers. After ten (!) minutes he comes to me and says with a plaintive tone: „Nothing’s happening.“
We put the stand with the flowers on the windowsill and I invite him to do something else now and to have a look in between.

At the beginning of the circle of chairs I ask Manuel to explain to the children what he did with the flowers. He laughs and says, „Yes, I want to do that.“ Manuel tells the children with a lot of facial expressions and a loud voice about his experiment and that he is now waiting to see if anything has happened. The children listen even more attentively than at his first demonstration. Manuel speaks freely and doesn’t even pay attention to me anymore.

When about half the time in the circle of chairs is already over he jumps up and shouts: „There, it starts! One flower is already turning pink.“ Manuel is beaming and all the children look at the pink flower. When he leaves, he says, „Black takes longer.“

5.

Manuel is still interested in the mortar. Every day, something different is pounded. He presents the results again in the chair circle and finds companions who share this passion with him.

Note from the course leader:
This is where the attention you give Manuel begins to have a distinctly positive effect on the group.

6.

Manuel is back from vacation. He heads for the sandpaper letters and says: „Antonia, do you know I can read a bit now?“
I reply: „No, but you could show me.“ He grins and names all but two of the letters. Then he says, „I want to rub them all in and make a book with them.“ He spends a long time doing it, concentrating.

7.

Manuel is always busy with the letters. He talks about secret writing and I show him mirror writing using my name. He is enthusiastic and tries a lot. Among other things, he glues a printing plate and is happy about the mirror writing when printing. In a circle of chairs he explains the mirror writing to the children.

8.

Today Manuel makes an envelope out of paper, writes something on a small piece of paper and puts it into the envelope. I ask if I may see it. He hesitates and then says resolutely: „No, you can’t. It’s a secret!“ I laugh and say, „What a pity.“ Manuel says, consolingly: „No matter. You couldn’t read it anyway because it’s a secret writing.“ Then he puts it in his drawer and says, „You can’t show it secretly in a circle of chairs either“ and laughs again.

Note from the course leader:
Now he is free to choose what he wants to show you and the other children. Again a learning progress.

9.

Manuel now works more often together with other children, today with Ole. They invent patterns with geometric shapes in graded sizes, rework the shapes with coloured paper and stick their „invention“ on.

10.

Today morning, Manuel comes in and says: „I know what I want to do. I’ve always wanted to work with a web frame.“ We prepare a frame for him. He gets the hang of it quickly, weaves persistently and doesn’t let himself be put off even if he makes a mistake. He then gets help and continues. He carefully chooses the colors by holding them to the piece he’s already woven.

11.

Manuel and Hans have worked together more often in the last few days. Today, in the morning, they walk towards each other determinedly and make an appointment for the building room. Emil asks if he can join in too. Hans and Manuel build a rail network with the Brio Bahn. Emil plays beside it alone with a locomotive and trailers. Manuel and Hans talk to each other and present their plans and actions. Manuel says: „Hey, when are we going to connect the rails, by thunder?“ Hans and Emil laugh and fling the rails across the room. Manuel: „Hey, why do you destroy everything? It doesn’t work that way. I need a long run. When are we going to tie?“
The other two kids keep messing around and laughing. Manuel gets upset and swears and shouts: „Stop! It’s not going to work!“ When the both don’t react, he starts throwing things around.

Note from the course leader:
The desperation of the highly motivated when others torpedo the construction work.

I intervene and ask Hans and Emil to listen to Manuel. They do, and Manuel describes his plan. They are rebuilding. I invite them to put trailers on all the locomotives. Manuel tries, distributes, rearranges again and says: „Oh shit, I wanted one with four trailers. But I can’t do that. Then two engines won’t have any.“
He fiddles around for a while. „I’ve got it! We’ll each get one first.“ He does it like this, looks and comments: „That’s justice.“ They start playing. Manuel comments on his moving train: „Move the longest distance. Oh, station forgotten! Station! Stop the train! Next please! Next, please!“

Note from the course leader:
I’m glad you helped him. He learns: I have an idea, a plan in my head. If I want others to go along with it, I have to introduce and explain it to them.

12.

Manuel comes in the morning and says: „I have to check my leaf. I’m very curious.“ A few days ago he brought a big leaf from his trip to the kindergarten and put it in the flower press.
The leaf is not dry yet. He looks at it and feels it and says, „Do you think it’s ready?“ When I say no, he says: „Then it must go back in“ and clamps it again.

Note from the course leader:
He shows real talent for research, such as constant interest and perseverance in his projects.

13.

Manuel arrives at the kindergarten in a good mood. He goes to his workplace from the day before to print his name with the printing plate he has made. He chooses the colours, mixes a shade of colour and applies the ink evenly with the roller. He prints for the first time, looks at the result, laughs and shouts happily: „Everything’s back to front!“ (Mirror writing.)
He makes several prints, then tidies up his workplace and strolls through the group.

14.

Manuel sits down at the table where the children do folding work and begins to fold. I ask him what he is folding. Manuel: „I just fold. Let’s see what comes out of it.“
Very concentrated he tries it out. The result is a regular folding work, where all folds correspond to each other on the right and left. Hans comes and watches him. Then they both fold „just go ahead“ and show each other their results.
Manuel holds up his and says: „It looks like a plane. I must try it out.“ He likes the test flight and he repeats the folding in a different colour. Then he tidies up and goes for breakfast.

Then he purposefully fetches his weaving frame, holds a ball of wool to the woven piece, mumbles something, puts the wool away and takes red wool. Again he holds it to the woven piece, says „yes, good“ and begins to weave. His movements are relaxed and concentrated. He does not look at what is happening around him.

15.

Again and again Manuel asks to mortar. It almost seems like a ritual of arrival in the morning. Another child always joins in and they enjoy this action together.

16.

Manuel watches as I show a boy of the same age something with brown stairs and red poles (Montessori material). He gives advice on the construction. With the agreement of Konrad he plays along and they try out all kinds of things with a lot of fun. The common play continues throughout the whole morning.

When Manuel arrives and I greet him, I ask: „How does it look like? What do you mortar today?“ Manuel replies: „No, today is the day when I stop using mortars. Today I’m going to the site with Konrad.“ They disappear into the construction corner, and there they’re in good spirits all morning, building a huge railroad.

18.

Manuel plays the role of the wolf in „The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids“. He plays with commitment and the right stakes. When the little goats finally dance, singing, around the fountain into which wolf Manuel has fallen, he jumps up and runs to his seat.

We talk in a circle of chairs about how we enjoyed it. I ask Manuel what suddenly happened to the wolf in the well. Manuel says: „I thought this thing was stupid. I don’t want to be dead.“

19.

Manuel plays with four-year-old Mira. He builds a rhombus with the (Montessori) poles and shows it to the kindergarten teacher. She makes a new suggestion. Manuel says, „No, I want something else.“ He explains with hands and words what form the building should take. The teacher asks, „Like a funnel?“ He beams: „Exactly like a funnel!“
His plan succeeds and he dances enthusiastically with Mira around his work.

Reflection

Manuel has received our support to experiment a lot and to try out new things in the kindergarten as well as to deepen and expand material work.
Our support consisted in

    • to prepare offers for him which we assumed would interest him,
    • to get involved with his guidelines and ideas and to be available to him when he implements them.

Several times he presented his work in a circle of chairs. The group reacted with curiosity and recognition. There were imitators of his work, whom he helped with words and deeds, and also other children presented their things in the circle of chairs.

In the meantime this form of presentation has become part of everyday life and enriches the group life.

Increasingly, play situations developed in which Manuel acted well with children of the same age and also much younger children. His basic mood, which he showed in the kindergarten, changed at an amazingly fast pace. He now comes to the kindergarten full of energy and happy.

He hardly ever takes on the clown role anymore, but acts very humorously, with a lot of wit and joy in situation comedy.

He actively participates in the chair circle offers. As a play partner, he is now in great demand among the children.

Since a few weeks Manuel is also at the kindergarten over lunchtime and can play intensively with other children in the afternoon in the smaller group. We had suggested to the mother to try this step, because it had become clear in conversations with the parents that Manuel (he also has three siblings) was straining the family and himself with many fights at home.

He accepted the afternoon care with enthusiasm. I don’t take this for granted because his younger brother is always picked up before him and has lunch at home.

During this time of targeted demands and attention, Manuel has been able to stabilise his emotional state and his social position in the group through offers and has gained in self-confidence.
Conflicts are handled by him in a relaxed and appropriate manner.
He has a clearly friendly relationship with the teachers, which sometimes has an almost complicit character.

Note from the course leader:
Well, it’s the best thing that can happen to gifted children.

Further considerations

In the last two weeks I have increasingly withdrawn, a colleague (who already has the IHVO certificate – see also: Journalism in Kindergarten) has taken over his company in a very competent way over the weeks. I took this step because of the necessity of everyday life (devotion to other children) and also because I felt that now was the right time to let Manuel go his own way more often. In this way I want to avoid that he only experiences himself as good when he acts close to the adult. It is important to me not to let my attention for him diminish – but to find the right balance in the attention so that Manuel continues to experience and behave as a member of this group of children and his independence grows.

I am confident that we will succeed in this as a team of kindergarten teachers and that Manuel will be able to take further positive steps in his development with his new starting capital of competence.

What impressed me very much about this project was the extent of the profit for the other children. Some children, imitating at first, but then according to their own needs, demanded new forms of play for themselves and also made use of them again for the group.

During this time, we adults were able to discover many new things for our work with the children in general and also specifically with Manuel. The next step for me will be to see exactly when Manuel needs new input and where he can go on alone. Manuel is so enthusiastic about every suggestion that as an adult you might be in danger of slipping into the role of an animator. I would like to observe and reflect on this with myself.

Remark of the course leader:
I don’t see the danger that you could become an animator (i.e. just entertaining and „joking“ him. Manuel implements every suggestion very independently and also has his own ideas… The more of them he can successfully implement (with support, also by further questions; where it makes sense), the more good ideas he will produce himself.

Very often Manuel comes to the kindergarten in the morning and has his own plan in his head and knows what he would like to do. I want to provide him with the necessary means to do so and thus support him in following his own development plan, his own learning paths in and with the group.

(All children’s names have been changed.)

 

Date of publication in German: April 2020
Copyright © Antonia Herberg, see Impressum.