I'm Ming Zheng.
I teach 18 children, ages three to five,
with two other team members: Dan and Polly.
Loud or soft?
Loud.
ZHENG: Children learn by exploring.
And now how does that sound from that tube?
Loud.
You think it was loud?
Because of that tube.
ZHENG: And they can deepen their learning
by documenting what they are doing.
What are you doing?
This helps them reflect on their experiences
and think about what they've learned.
"Playing with the..."
"U...
"Ukulele, it sounds like a violin.
I was in dramatic play."
Good job, Hayley.
During our explorations, we take pictures, make charts.
Do you think this one is going to be quiet or quieter?
And write down observations of what the children do and say.
So what do I have to do?
I have to make a... what?
CHILDREN: Shake it.
I have to shake it, right?
Shake it or move it.
When we make a written record of our observations,
it shows the children that what we are doing is important.
How are you going to describe your sound?
We have funny, tree sound, high sound, low sound.
A bird sound.
Bird sound, okay.
This is what we are going to do.
Some of our greatest learning happens
when we have the children make predictions.
In circle, the children try to predict
when we make a maraca louder or quieter.
If you put more rice than beans,
the rice will make a louder sound.
ZHENG: We wrote down the predictions
so we could compare them with what actually happened.
So should I shake it
and just should try and then see if that really works?
(loud rattling)
CHILDREN: Loud.
Okay, let me try this one.
(soft rattling)
Soft.
Which one's louder, can you tell me?
The black beans.
The black bean is louder?
So why do you think it makes a loud or louder sound
for this maraca?
The material.
Good job.
Can you tell me what sound we might hear when we go outside?
We also wrote down predictions
before we went on a listening walk.
I predict duck.
Duck.
And what about you, Astrid?
A car.
You think car, and what kind of car sound?
Broken car.
Broken.
Because we had written down our predictions,
we were able to go back and compare them
with what actually happened.
Did you hear a duck sound?
No.
No, we didn't hear a duck sound.
We said we would find "car broken sound."
Did we find it?
Yes.
How about car beeping sound?
Yes.
ZHENG: As we experimented with making sounds,
we took pictures of the children
and the materials they were using.
Who is that?
We put the photos in a book and asked the children
to help us write down what was happening on each page.
What kind of sound did you make?
I made a loud sound.
You made a loud sound?
This gives them an opportunity to remember, think about,
and discuss what they experienced.
It goes...
(humming)
(imitates humming)
We can then use the book to share our experiences
with the rest of the class.
This is going to be another book.
That is going to document your learning.
Documenting and reflecting on our work
really helps children learn science concepts
and develop scientific thinking.
(giggles)