Life Mysteries Making Visible a Strong Image of the Child

In the preschool, one of the fundamental principles of the Reggio approach is our belief and value of a strong image of the child. A child who is curious and capable of constructing his/her own knowledge and understanding about the world around them. And key to this knowledge building and understanding is not through being fed information, but through a process of taking an active role in asking questions, making close observations, finding connections, testing and retesting ideas, reflecting on experiences, and building their own expansive network of relationships between everything.

For us, the childrenʻs mysteries are not just a metaphor for learning, it is this process in action.

So as we (the teachers) thought about the next steps in our project work, we first had to go back to listen more closely to the children—in our group meetings, in our conversations throughout the day, from our research trips, and in what we see them doing in their work and play. What are they telling us now about where they are in their thinking regarding mysteries now? Rather than narrowing our focus in the direction we thought they were heading, instead they reminded us to keep a wider scope because the mysteries they wonder about are as broad as life.

Since tossing ʻlife mysteriesʻ on Thursday, itʻs as if the whole world has now become Target. This is how powerful our research sites are in this process. Even though as we explained some might think it was just Target, the children are ready to prove otherwise.

Here are just a few of the ʻlife mysteriesʻ they brought to our attention during preschool life recently.

I saw an ice castle glowing. But where does the light come from? Inside the ice or no? But you know, ice can melt light. But where does the light come from? - F.D. (reflecting on a mystery encountered from a past family trip experience)

I donʻt know how it got bouncier. -R.M. (Referring to when you fall down on the bridge outside on the play structure.) This is a mystery because the up and down motion of the bridge in reaction to the force of the fall, is contrary to its normal stiffer state that the child has observed. It was also unexpected from the childʻs point of view in terms of his theory of how the bridge should have moved.

U.K. and G.K. found a mystery—a nail from the playground. Where did it come from? How did it get there? What is it for? Why is it so long?

The children speculated for about an hour wondering about this mystery. And while the mystery was not resolved, this seemingly ordinary find ignited the next phase in our project work.

Why is Diamond Head called Diamond Head and what does it mean? -P.H.T.This led to a debate about who names things, how do things get their names? God or the Earth:)

Wait Kumu, what is the name of the Sun?- C.Z.

Kumu Lanakila (the high school hula teacher) stopped by last week and surprised the children with the mystery of his voice. They did not know it was his voice on the recording of the oli Welina Mānoa that they had been listening to and learning. He also shared the names of the wind and rain in Mānoa, Tuahine and Kahaukani, which prompted C.Z. to continue wondering, “What is the name of the sun?” Ka lā he replied, and she smiled as she rode away on her Exerbug looking up at the sky.

The cocoon is a mystery. The caterpillar makes a cocoon and a butterfly comes out. The cocoon is a mystery. How does it change? -K.A.All the other stages in the life of a caterpillar are visible except for when it is inside the chrysalis.

Thereʻs a life mystery—a heart! How did the trees make a heart?- A.A. The children have been studying the mystery of shadows using their own bodies and other objects where the shadow has always resembled the object. Here the tree creates the shadow around the light, and the light is in the shape of the heart, but still, how did the tree create a shape unlike itself?

And just because ʻlifeʻ seems like anything could fall under its category doesnʻt mean that everything is a mystery. Here A.V. disproves the teacherʻs hypothesis that stars are a life mystery after singing “Twinkle, Twinkle… How I wonder what you are?”

A.V.: Stars are not a mystery because they are made out of balls of gas and dust. Teacher: But how did those balls of gas and dust come together?A.V.: I donʻt know.Teacher: Oh, so it is still a little bit of a mystery to us.A.V.: But half of a star is not a mystery because you know what they are made out of.A.V.: Well actually there is no way stars can get together. (thinking about the teachers question and use of the word together.) They are always together in the night time in the sky. Teacher: So how come the stars are only in the sky not anywhere else?A.V.: They can never come down to the ground because they are too high up in the sky, cause I think they have air in the gas. Teacher: It seems like you really have some interesting ideas about stars. Would you draw them for me?A.V.: Sure!

Here A.V.ʻs own scientific knowledge about stars and gas gives her an idea about how to extend that knowledge to explain the mystery— the yet unknown to her—of why they are only in the sky and no where else. Just as we heard earlier in the mystery about ice and light, the mystery about the increased movement of the bridge, the mystery of the change hidden by the cocoon, and the mystery of the shadow that created a heart shape. The mystery is not a total unknown, instead it is the part that is an anomaly to what they already know.

This is how some of the children describe their thinking when you are looking for a mystery. You have to look for…

Something real and something different. -E.L.Fake is not a mystery. Fake is just fake. -R.M.Something that may have disappeared and then you find it somewhere else. -F.D.Something that leaves a clue. C.Y.

Mysteries are different because they are from different people and different places. We all have different ideas and they all get mixed up in my brain. -P.H.T.

So when we stop to think about why learning through the lens of mystery is of value, we see the children have already grown in articulating their questions and making connections between their observations and knowledge, which leads to further questioning. The further questioning leads to speculation, which leads to hypothesizing and theorizing. And while the testing/experiment stage may take on a different form in preschool than it would in the scientific method, the conclusion at this point in time is not our aim, Our aim is to teach children how to learn—to be inquirers, creators, problem solvers, innovators and collaborators, and to do all of this in joy and wonder. This way learning and growing for them never ends and their lives will always be full of mystery.