The Bird Road ...The End?

The children needed more rocks for the road for the birds! Off we went on a search for rocks. We found small ones and large ones. Whew, some of them wouldn’t budge no matter how hard we tried or how many friends we got to help. Children filled up their arms with as many as they could carry and dumped them into the wheelbarrow. As the we collected the children were enthusiastic to show each other the rocks they found. We returned to the Centre with many rocks to continue building the road for the birds. The children made the road longer and added twists and turns.

We revisited the documentation of the children’s comments of the materials they wanted to use to build the roads. In addition to rocks they had suggested plastic and wood. Clear plastic strips and wood pieces were provided to them. As the children were adding these materials to the roads, there were birds singing in the woods nearby.
We all stopped and the children could hear the birds singing. Some children went to the fence to try and see the birds in the trees. We couldn’t see them.
Suddenly several birds showed up and landed on the fence.
Hooray, the road worked, the birds had come.

Have the children finished building the road?
We ask ourselves these questions: Have the children finished building the road? Would the children like to build the road toward the forest where the birds live? Should we provide more rocks? Are the children interested in the birds? Has construction stopped because they are satisfied now they have seen the birds on the road? Is it because there were no more rocks? Why a road for the birds?
Since construction of the road ceased several weeks ago, we have been amazed to see the children navigate their way around the road. And, even though it is in a high traffic area, they have managed to keep it in it’s original shape. This causes us to believe that the children have a deep respect for the road. We wonder about their connection to the road. Do they want to build more roads? Do they want to continue to explore roads? We have observed that this group of children loves vehicles and perhaps the birds were a way of bringing their interest in roads forward to enable them to explore roads further?