Watch children

It is far more interesting to look for apples than for studs, but we have to be sure that the task is really meaningful for the children taking part.

Some children may talk a lot, have a rich vocabulary, but it is important to ensure they really understand what they are talking about.

Fadi knows what an apple tree is, as we’ve known him for a long time. Once, when he was little, we went with him to an apple orchard. He explained to us that he knew what a tree was: “Something really tall”. Then, when we asked “Where is the top of the tree?”. His answer… “There is no top”.
He thought that the tree was endless, soaring into the sky, so we found a small tree to show him.

Facilitating child learning is a different concept than merely delivering content. Young children need to understand concepts and develop a breadth of holistic skills.

Although this activity was designed for a single participant, having Fadi and Loris work side by side allowed for great social interaction: they performed the activity and then checked what the other had made.

They had to perform multiple steps in this variation: exploration of the base plate to find all the bricks, examination of each brick for apples and to check that the trees were the right side up.