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Day 1 - On Wednesday 3.02.05 many of
the children were in the block area building an enclosure. One of the
teachers, Kate, noticed that some of the children, Victor and Bart in
particular, were really more interested in knocking down the walls than
building them up. In order to minimize the amount of children in the block
area and to focus on the children's true interest Kate built a cardboard
block structure in the circle area and invited the children to roll balls at
the structure in order to knock it down. The children were completely
engrossed in this activity. One of the balls was a golf ball. Laura noted
that she has played miniature golf at the place with the bumper boats
(referring to Look Park) This led to a discussion about miniature golf. Many
of the children said that they too had played miniature golf. Kate suggested
that the children and the teachers at the school make their own miniature
golf course. The children loved this idea. Christina, one of the student
teachers, picked up on the enthusiasm and invited Victor, Bart, and Leslie
into the art room to begin designing a miniature golf course. They worked
together building a course, when Bart's interest began to subside Bobby
joined Victor, Leslie and Christina in the art room.
Art Room - Christina
encouraged the children to begin thinking about and designing a miniature
golf course. She asked them to think about what types of obstacles they would
have in their miniature golf course. Bart, Leslie, Bobby and Victor all drew
sketches for a golf course. Bart drew a picture of four holes with four flags
He labeled them Holes 1, 2, 3, 4. Victor began to draw his vision of a golf course. He was
chatting about golf courses as he began to draw: To get a hole in one
is tricky because like one there's a rock blocking the way. But there's a
little room that the golf ball could fit in.
( He pointed to the circle with lines in his
drawing and explained ) A golf hole, maybe in the spring we could
build something outside. Like we could make a long green with holes. And if
you get one in a hole you get a free shot. And move around the putting green.
Maybe there could be a guy that makes sure you get a score.
Victor ( pointed to drawing and said ):
There's
two holes (the yellow ones ) blocking the way and
you have to try to get it between the two to get it into the main hole. These
are the two holes; I mean tubes that you will start all over. Both of them
lead to the beginning again ( the smaller holes).These two S's stand
for start.
Day 2 -Circle time - In order to
assess prior knowledge about miniature golf and to see if there a genuine
interest in further investigation of this topic, Jenny (one of the teachers)
asked the preschoolers about miniature golf.
Jenny: Has anyone ever been to play miniature golf? What do you remember?
Laura: Mini
golf is where you have a ball and you hit it with one of those sticks, and
then you go to the next hole and the next hole…it goes
down at the end and never comes back. Then you win.
Jenny: What do you win at the end? Is there a prize?
Laura: You
get to go home.
Nico: I
went to Martha's Vineyard at the beach house
and me and my mom went to miniature golf and I loved it.
Jenny asked the
children if they could help her tell a story about a little girl and a little
boy playing miniature golf. She began ….
Jenny: Once upon a time, not that long ago, there was little boy named Jack
and a little girl named Mica. Jack and Mica were brother and sister. They
were also very good friends. On a nice sunny day, their mother took them to
play miniature golf. They had never played miniature golf before. This was
their first time ever. They didn't know what to expect. They got out of the
car and they saw what looked to be a big mountain and waterfall. There were
lots of colors and beautiful decorations and lots of people waiting in line.
Dotty (another teacher)
continued: Mica was a little hungry. She asked if she could have a hotdog
from the hotdog stand. But Jack didn't want to eat. He wanted to get right
into playing golf. I'm not sure if he really knew how to or what he needed to
play golf … I'm wondering if maybe you could tell that
part of the story.
Cathy: They saw colored
balls on the little shelves and put pennies in the thing and the balls rolled
up and they opened something and the balls rolled out in their hands.
Bobby: And
you need a stick to hit it.
Laura: It's
not a stick, a golf club.
Bart: One
time when I was two, or three, or four I always went to miniature golf.
Nico: They
hit the balls with their golf club.
Laura: And
they tried to get a hole.
Victor: They
had to find colored balls and there was this pool that they slid in, and they
couldn't get it and they had to go back to the start, and they had to watch
where the pool was.
Laura: They
go back to get another ball.
Bobby: And
they put on their bathing suits and they dove in to get the ball.
Dotty reiterates the story thus far.
Henry: They found a little
pool in the wall. They can use it.
Nico: Somebody
put their bathing suits on to go over the river.
Henry: Maybe
there's a bridge.
Cathy: They
got some balls out of slots and they went to the holes and they both got in
the holes and they went on to the next one.
Susana: And
then it fell into the water again, and they had to put on their bathing suits
again, and they went into the water, and as soon as they got it and they hit
the ball and it dropped in their hand.
Rebecca: I
hit it with my mom and Max played golf with me.
Laura: Then
they went to last hole and they never got their balls back.
Brenna: They
found a magnifying glass and they played hockey park.
Abby: And
then when they got to that part they didn't know how to get it back.
During the story the
teachers discovered that most of the children had experience with the game of
miniature golf. Many of the children were particularly fascinated with the
water that the balls could fall into.
Day 3 - The teachers decided to add
some miniature golf props to the rug area as a provocation. A miniature
bridge, that resembled the Great Wall of China,
was placed on the rug along with a golf club, a golf ball and a tin hole.
Next to the Great Wall the teachers placed a plastic gutter, a tube, and a
golf hole made of tin. The children used all of these materials to shoot the
ball over the bridge as they practiced holding a golf club and hitting a golf
ball.
As they played golf the
following discussion took place:
Gruffydd (to the other children): You have to keep your eye on the ball. Noticing that some of the
children are having trouble moving the ball very fast he says, you'll have to move
it harder.
Kate: You're a good coach. I'd think that you had played miniature golf
before.
Gruffydd: No, I play big golf.
Kate: Do you play big golf at home?
Gruffydd:I
play outside. The balls don't go in the water. They have a bridge. The balls
go far away….The obstacles are for big kids.
During Circle Time the
teacher, Dotty, asked the whole group about what we would need for a
miniature golf course in our classroom. The children said that we would need
holes, balls and golf clubs. Three small groups of children met to explore in
their journals what a miniature golf course in our classroom might look like.
After school, during post session, the teachers reflected on what the
children had said and written in their journals. The teachers shared ideas
and insights that came from the children's journals.
Here is the list of the
miniature golf ideas generated by the children.
Lola – barricades
Cathy – pools, balls
floating, they bounce in the water and then up into the hole.
Victor – Curved courses, balls that would bounce off the walls around
curves; obstacles such as a ball might jump a curve and go into the pool
instead of the hole.
Henry – ball goes through a tunnel and a pearl comes up.
Leslie – Bridge to walk over; faces with curtain hanging below, ball
gets hit through curtain.
Bobby – flags, a place with food
Edward– ramp over water with hole on island
Nico – path
Susana – ball goes around corner; when it goes in the hole then it's done.
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Day 4 - The teachers added a ramp to
the miniature golf area. The children now had two different paths in which to
aim their golf balls.Two golfers were thus able to play golf simultaneously.
Nico: I want to make it so
the ball jumps over the hole and gets over here.
Nico: You
forgot something; a block.
Gryff: I'm
gonna hit it really hard this time 'cause I love this.
Nico: You
have to hit it easy. You have to practice before you do a new one.
Henry (to Leo): I think you need to put it right here and then you push it. (Henry is showing Leo how he
shoots a difficult hole. Leo cannot get the ball in the hole. Kate suggests
adding blocks along the side. Leo does this and the ball goes in . Gryff
suggests making a bridge.
Gryff tries to assemble
a bridge but he is unsuccessful.
Kate asks Gryff, How are you going to make a bridge?
Gryff builds a structure with three red cardboard blocks. Two of the blocks
are standing vertically and one is lying horizontally between them. Kate
assumes that Gryff is making a bridge. She asks him about his reasoning
behind this.
Gryff tells her, I'm going to try and get over that. Gryff tries to golf over the horizontally block
and is unsuccessful.
Nico, who has been
listening to the conversation, says, I know what the problem is. The red one is
the problem . Nico
removes the vertical block and now only the two horizontal blocks are in
place. Gryff continues to make a bridge structure that has a tunnel beneath
it. He tries to get the ball through the tunnel, over the bridge and into the
hole. He is unsuccessful and says, Maybe I should try it a different way.
Gryff, Leo and Nico
dismantle the tunnel then Leo decides to add blocks on top of the already
existing bridge to make it easier.
A few minutes later the
boys begin to line blocks in front of the bridge.
Nico: I'm
making a road for it.
Nico begins to add
sides to the road. Leo and Jewel help.
Henry shoots a ball over the path and exclaims, I got 100, so I won.
Later during circle
time the children experiment with getting a golf ball to go up onto a table.
The teachers set up two provocations.On each of two rugs, a hole is set up on
op of a low table. The children are divided into two groups.They sit around a
low table and are given a golf ball and asked “How do we get the
ball from the ground into the hole on the table?”
Group 1 – Teachers: Dotty and Pat
Children: Brenna, Jewel, Cathy, Susana, Rebecca, Fynn, Laura, Gruffydd, and
Ally
Question: “How do we get the ball from the ground into
the hole on the table?”
Brenna: Use
plastic to swing the ball
Rebecca: We
could a build a ramp. Swing it hard to get it up there
Laura: We
could make a bridge
Gruffydd: From a ladder
Susana: Hit
the ball; it is going to go up and down and then hit the table
Cathy: Using
a ramp and a magnifying glass
Jewel: Have
a make believe mountain and go up that way.
Group 2 – Teachers: Jenny and Kate
Children: Leo, Nico, Henry, Victor, Leslie, Lola, and Bobby
Question: “How do we get the ball from the ground into
the hole on the table?”
Leslie: Making
a bridge out of a table
Henry: Pick
it up and drop it in.
Kate explains to Henry that we need to use the golf club, not our hands.
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Victor: Make a ramp sort
of or we could use a hill sort of ramp. A big ramp that's 12'
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Nico:
Using
skinny pieces and make a ramp
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Bobby:
A ramp
out of wood
Kate: Maybe they
are too short how could we make this work?
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Lola – Avec ca [with this] (Lola picks up a long green
tube).
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Top
Day 5 - The minigolf area has a new
item added to it. It is a miniature Eiffel Tower
with a tunnel underneath it. In order to follow with the discussion during
yesterdays circle The Eiffel Tower has been set on a low table. There is a
metal golf ball catcher behind it. The gutter, tube and London Bridge
are still available to the children. The children begin playing with the
different golf props. Someone leans the gutter on the side of the table up to
the Eiffel Tower. Henry takes a swing and says,
Henry: I
got 100. Just like
yesterday he has again mentioned scoring.
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Nico
looks at the Eiffel
Tower perched on the
table and says;
Get a block to block it . He then adds rectangular block to the back of metal hole behind
the Eiffel Tower.
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He takes a couple of
shots and then says:
Nico: Remember
yesterday when we made the big, big, big thing?
Kate: The path?
Nico: Yes,
path. Yesterday. Maybe we can make it again.
Kate (still thinking about the golf hole behind the Eiffel Tower)
says, “how are you going to get it in there?”
Nico moves the tower and hole up to the end of the table closer to the ramp.
He and a friend add the long green tube. Let's do it this way. They add the green tube.
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Jenny,
in the meantime has been showing Bobby how to position his body like a
golfer, to the side, one hand above the other, and swing. She tells him
that he can find pictures of professional golfers in the books that Dotty
borrowed from library. Bobby walks away and Jenny fears she may have pushed
him too far, but he returns and asks where the books are. He leaves and
brings back a large hard cover book called Ultimate Golf and flips it open.
Jenny and Bobby look through at the pictures of the grownups golfing. Jenny
points out their form.
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Nico and the other
children begin to reconstruct the path they made yesterday but this time the
path leads to the ramp hole.
Kate: Does this look like a mini golf course?
Bobby: It
doesn't look like a real one but it does look like an inside one.
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The
path is built of the cardboard blocks but there are many cracks where the
ball could fall through. Instead of pushing the blocks together to get rid
of the cracks Nico and Gryff lay more blocks on top of path to fill in
cracks. Jenny and Kate find this fascinating because it defies their adult
logic to simply push the ramps closer to the path.
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Gryff (explains how to use
the Eiffel tower), You have to hit from there and fling across here and then in the
hole.
Jewel adds the Great Wall
Bridge behind the Eiffel Tower.
There is a space between the Eiffel
Tower and the ramp.
Victor moves the tower up so there is no space then…
Nico: I have an idea; he puts the metal hole behind
the Great Wall bridge.
Kate observes the children practicing their new challenge. She sees their
skills are improving and says “just wait until we take a
field trip to mini-golf. You're so good you're going to beat your parents.”
Edward: But
I'm gonna be on my mom's team.
Jewel: I think this should
go here and this should go here. She turns the ramp around from facing left to facing
right.
Nico: I
have an idea, we have to whack it to go up there and whack it to go up here.
Kate shows the children that she thinks the ball will get stuck on the edge
of the ramp. She asks Victor what we should do about the problem.
Victor: Turn
it around.
Kate: To how it was?
Vic: Yeah.
Victor: ( Speaking
aloud as a newscaster describing his play) He does it and it goes off the track!
It was spinning when he picked it up… and then the
track broke a little… He missed—oh! He gets it and plays
out… and breaks it in… breaks it in… oohh! Gets off the course… Then he got
it in!!
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Lola
makes new hole out of tube and ramp.On the left hand side of the path
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she
has added a gutter that goes up to the top of some blocks then down a tube
that she placed on the other side.
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At
the end of the tube are the Bridge and Tower and finally the hole.
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Lola
practices using her new construction.
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Victor: (Commenting on
Lola's construction), This is a good job. I like this golf course. We are golfers.
During circle time we
met as a whole group and posed the following question to the preschoolers:
Kate- “Where does miniature golf come from?”
Susana:
a park
Leo: a bus
Laura: a city
Victor: from a golf stadium
Henry: a ball store
Nico: from workers
Cathy: a miniature golf
place
Bobby : a miniature golf
hen that lays golf balls for everyone and miniature golf places for every
friend to play it.
Kate said to the children, “Before miniature golf there was real
golf.”
Noticing that the
children were somewhat unclear as to where a miniature golf course comes from
we decided to divide the children into small groups to look at pictures of
golf and to talk about what the children observe in the golf books and golf
photos.
Group 1 - Teachers: Kate and Liz
Children: Victor, Leslie, Lola, Bobby, Laura, Jewel
Kate planned to share a
golf book with the children but the book was consisted mainly of photographs
of Tiger Woods so Kate and Liz opted for the computer picture of a mini golf
course instead.
Liz showed the children the picture of a miniature golf course and then asked
the children:
Liz: “What do you see in the picture of the miniature golf course that
you would like to have in our golf course.”
Laura: Waterfalls
Jewel: Rocks…. Green leaves
Victor: Putting
Green
Jewel: A
Tree … tunnel
Victor: You
golf on the putting green
Kate: “What would you like to have in our miniature golf course?”
Bobby: Snack
bar with food
Laura: Balls,
grass, swimming pool
Bobby: golf
clubs
Kate: “I noticed that some of you thought that we could have some water
and a bridge in our miniature
golf course? How could we go about doing this?”
Bobby: We
could build one out of wood (referring to a bridge). … Call the builders and have them make a
bridge over the water.
Kate: “We are the builders. What would we have to do? How would we build a bridge?”
Bobby: Boards
over there (he
points to block area). Bridges have boards.
Leslie: I
don't think the boards will hold us.
Bobby was talking about having the sky in the classroom. Kate asked him to
explain himself
Bobby: We
can bring the outdoors indoors to have whatever we want … Sky … Clouds
Group 2 - Teacher: Jenny
Children: Edward, Nico, Leo, Henry, Gruffydd, Cathy
Jenny instructed the children to flip through the golf books laid out on the
table and look at the picture of the mini golf course.
Jenny: “What do you notice?”
Nico: (Observing a picture in the golf book.) A little thing holding the ball
Jenny: “That's a good observation, Nico. It's called a tee.”
Henry: (Observing the mini-golf picture) Here's a ball store. It has all kinds of things
in it. It has a pool. It's a vacation.
Jenny: “What happens if the ball falls into the pool?”
Henry: You
go get it.
Edward: (Golf book) That's what a whole golf course looks like. There are two ponds.
There's
also some flags. There's also some white stuff.
Jenny: “I wonder what the white stuff is?”
Cathy: It's
sand.
Jenny: What happens if it goes in the sand?
Cathy: They
have to try to not hit it into the sand box. They have to hit it over the
sand and into the hole.
Edward: (Observing drawing of golf course) This is really realistic.
Cathy: Yea,
it looks like the golf ground that you do golf on.
Cathy: (mini-golf picture) There is a pool. There are lots of Bridges.
Group 3 - Teacher: Christina
Children: Brenna, Susana, Rebecca, Fynn, Ally
Susana: (observing picture in golf book) I thought about sand because a mini golf
course has sand, and grass, and a sidewalk. And a flag and rocks!
Top
Day 6 - The pathway with the cardboard
blocks, tunnel and gutter (that was built by the children the preceding day)
was still in place on the rug in the miniature golf area. The children
continued to interact with it throughout constructive playtime. Children made
an obstacle course.
Nico: I have a good idea to
move this right here.
He moves the Eiffel
Tower onto the
Cardboard runway.
Gruffydd is patiently waiting his turn.
Nico: Can
two people play?
Jenny decides the holes
should be separated if two people were to play safely. Jenny, Gruff, and Nico
carefully move the cardboard blocks and other props piece by piece.
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Gruffydd: A tunnel! A tunnel!
Gruffydd thinks
out loud. He heads to block area and returns with a wooden arch.
Nico brings back a
hollow wooden block and places it a couple feet behind the arch. As Nico
takes his turn, he hits the ball again and again. It keeps bouncing off the
lower edge of the block. He finally hits the ball through and into the hole
to end his turn.
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Gruffydd: I'm gonna try a
different one. It's not going up into this. Gruffydd has realized why Nico was having so
much trouble and he removes the block from the path.
Gruffydd hits the ball. It rolls though the arch and down into the ramp where
it gets stuck.
Gruffydd: If I hit it hard it will go out. [if not] it gets stuck in the gully.
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Jenny: “What's
a gully?”
Gruffydd: It's a kind of name
for this. He points out the place at the bottom of the ramp. If it doesn't
go up it goes down. It goes right here, so that's why I call it that.
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Meanwhile someof the
children have built an obstacle course in the block area. They make up two
rules for the obstacle course.
Rule 1. You must take your shoes off.
Rule 2. You need a ticket.
The children have built
a balance beam out of blocks that curve around the outside of the block area.
They walk the beam and then up onto the blocks and the low white shelf that
line the wall. They then turn in their ticket to Jane and slide down a tube.
At the bottom of the tube Jane hands them a new ticket and they arrive at the
beginning to walk the balance beam again.
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Jewel: This is an obstacle
course, Jenny.
Cathy: Now
it’s a movie.
Victor: Now it’s a movie circus.
Jewel: It’s
a golf ball place.
Susana:
I’m going to show one of the other teachers this tube. This is a fun
circus.
Cathy, noticing that most of the preschoolers are playing on the obstacle
course, says, Pretty soon the whole school will be over here.
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Miniature Golf Project - Part 2 - Bringing the
Outside Inside
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