Just How Do We Close This Window?

It was 9:05am, which meant, it was time for the preschool children at SM to go into their respective classes to begin their day. As I was calling them all in to the class from the front space of the school, Aarav was looking around the window area , looking out, touching the surface, etc. He seemed to be in deep thoughts. As I called him too to go to his class, he stopped me and asked me, “Ma’am, how do we close the window?” 

The window is opened upwards and in the front it has a heavy door like object with stars cut out, that needs to be opened for the window to be closed. And Aarav couldn’t just figure out how this window was closed or opened. It looked fascinating to him. 

“How do you think?”

Aarav: I don’t know ma’am. Maybe the wind closes it. 

“How do you know there’s wind though?”

Aarav: You know in my home, there is a lot of wind. 

At this time Aadya came along wondering what was happening. She tagged along in the conversation. 

Aadya: There is very little wind outside ma’am. 
Aarav: Wind will close the window. 

“How will wind close?”

Aarav:” Air will come and shut.”

Suddenly Aadya had another idea, “We can use a ladder!”

“Okay. How?”

Aadya:” Outside ma’am”, pointing at outside the window 

“You’ll put it outside? What will happen then?,”

Aarav: “A car will come and crash!”

“Uh-oh!”

At this time, Siddharth came around with sock puppets on his hands, occupied with some other play. He stared at all of us standing around the window, not sure about what was going on, until I explained the situation to him. He immediately pulled up his sleeves (as if going on a mission), jumped up the slab we were all standing on. 

Siddharth, to Aarav and Aadya: “So you open this (the heavy piece with stars cut out) and you close the window!”
And he jumped out and ran away as his mission is now completed. 

Aarav and Aadya stared at this in wonder, trying to have an experience of opening and closing the window. After having figured it out, they happily jumped out and ran to their class with a newer dimension of thinking about how they could close the window. 

This little conversation served as a morning inspiration as it was yet another reminder about how curious children are about every little thing. And their passion to figure things out, and also helping others to figure things out. 

Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.