The Power of Reactions

Children like to cause reactions. 

They like to know that they made something happen, it makes them feel powerful.  I saw an article in Oprah's "O Magazine" where adults were sharing their favorite childhood memories, and the memory that spoke the loudest to me was this one: "I remember rolling an apple down the hallway.  I must have been very young because I remember feeling this overwhelming satisfaction that I had made something happen."

Making something happen is very powerful for a young child.

A toddler spots a tower...what will they do?  Knock it down.  Why?  To see the reaction. Not only will the tower fall down, which is a reaction...but they will also, more often then not, get a reaction out of the tower builder too.

A child kicks a ball.  It rolls.  More often then not...they will kick it again, just to see if the same reaction will happen.  If their cause (kicking) will have the same effect (rolling ball).

We, as early childhood professionals need to provide opportunities for young children to make things happen...for them to explore their world through cause and effect, for them to cause a reaction.

Why is this important? 

Young children crave reactions and the power that accompanies them. They will find a way to cause reactions whether good or bad.   So..give them opportunities to create reactions, so they don't look for ways to cause a negative reaction in you or the other children!

The following ideas actually evolved from a failed one.  Both include the always crowd pleasing combination of baking soda and vinegar. 
I thought it would be fun to use a sifter to sprinkle baking soda onto puddles of vinegar.  Sadly, baking soda is too fine, and it falls right through the sifter.  

(dah dada daaaah!!) Plastic salt shakers to the rescue!  Same concept...just a different mode of transportation and execution for the baking soda!  Just look:


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The environment is set.  Supplies are ready.  Pipettes, cups of colored vinegar, shakers of baking soda, and an empty container sitting on a non-slip mat (I learned to do this the hard way...when children are focused, containers can slide away and land on the floor!!).




Squirt.....then shake, nice and neat....this of course didn't last long as the container filled with a kaleidescope of colorful vinegar and fizzing reactions!  Soon there was shaking and squirting, squirting and shaking...reactions everywhere!



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It was fun to observe as the fizzing puddles started to appear.  One puddle, then two..then soon....one giant puddle, all contained by the walls of the bucket.



Teamwork

Lots of teamwork created a BEAUTIFUL rainbow, and a container-sized puddle of fizz!

Squeezing, grasping, muscle control (if the shaker hit the vinegar, it would clog the holes of the shaker making it useless) and working together....all valuable life-long skills.

NOW...fast forward to ANOTHER day.......

Brace yourself for.....

VINEGAR GONE WILD!!

Remove the container, and set that vinegar and baking soda reaction free! 

****IMPORTANT NOTE:  BEFORE setting the vinegar free, we all sat down and talked about the fact that there was now vinegar in the spray bottles, and we must not spray our friends or the grass (and of course, we talked about WHY, if you give guidelines remember to explain the WHY).  My crew did WONDERFULLY at following those simple guidelines.  Why?  First of all, because they LOVED the opportunity and didn't want to lose it. They also thrive on opportunities to earn our trust.
 "Danger" makes young children feel responsible and important...children respect danger.  Is vinegar all that dangerous?  Of course not...but just enough to garner an opportunity for trusting!*****

Free the vinegar!! (just keep it out of the grass!!)

 Little hands and fingers need strengthening.  The more opportunities for squeezing the better!  Finding the right motivation is the key.  Children will try and try until they are successful if they are provided with the right motivation!

****TIP***** 

I first filled the bottles about 1/4 of the way with water, then the coloring and then the vinegar.  Water downed vinegar gives you the same reaction and makes the vinegar last longer!  Later, we added one more element that caused a fun change to the reaction....read on!

First the shaking



Then the spraying...ahh teamwork!!

There is a lot of learning to be found in causing reactions. Both negative and positive reactions hold many lessons and provide children with life-long skills. 

Negative reactions (causing someone else to react to something we did in anger or disapointment is what I consider a "negative reaction") teach us about feelings, consideration and respect.  We learn how to express our feelings with words and feeling of compassion.  We learn an awareness of how others feel too.

Positive reactions can hold a treasure chest full of learning....teamwork, expressing ourselves, sense of pride, learning from trial and error, persistance, cooperation, sharing and patience just to name a few!


Collaboration at it's finest.  Erik took the lead roll and felt great importance when he told Amelia when it was time to shake more baking soda on.  They made their own pile of fizz for about 3 minutes...that's when the other children needed Erik and his purple vinegar STAT!

Thanks Erik!  Purple was just what this fizzing puddle needed!

 For an added twist, I added bubble solution to the vinegar bottles...this causes a slower, foamier fizz.

I loved all the teamwork that came out of this.  I thought there would be teams of shakers and sprayers, but it was fun to watch the sprayers join forces to create colorfull puddles of fizz!

I have found, that when provided with opportunities to cause positive reactions, most young children show little interest in hunting down negative reactions. One of those reasons is they just don't have time because they are consumed with the task at hand.  The other is their desire to cause a reaction is satisfied.



Teamwork is a good thing, yes...BUT there is something to be said about having all the supplies to yourself!



If you're going to set the vinegar free...it's only fair that you set those piggies free too!!!

Make sure there are opportunities for children to learn through cause and effect every day!  These opportunities can be as simple as kicking or throwing a ball, they do not need to require a lot of supplies or set up.

Here is a quick list of some of our favorite "cause and effect" activities off the top of my head:

1. balls of all sizes
2. parachute with various objects to be tossed around (if you don't have a parachute grab a bedsheet or table cloth)
3. water and cups
4. rice and cups
5. ANYTHING that can be poured and dumped
6. ramps (see post for ideas)
7. paint brushes and water for outside play (my crew LOVE to paint the cement with water and make it change color!!)
8. bikes, cars, push toys
9. Squiggles (see post)
10. baking soda and vinegar variations  (see post)
11. goop (see post)
12. bubbles (post 1 and post 2 about bubbles)
13. shop vac  (toy #1 at my house!  A shop vac that is STRICTLY FOR PLAY) My crew LOVE to suck up colored rice or fluffy pom poms, then turn it off, open it up and dump their hard work out just to do it again!  They also love the blow side (my shop vac sucks and blows).  We have a blast blowing light plastic ball-pit balls around the room, silk leaves or silk flower pedals too!  On the suck side we love to see what objects the suction is strong enough to pick up (books, various toys, containers, paper etc.) 
14. "Rainbow Rain" -- at an easel, the child colors lines with washable marker at the top of the paper, then sprays the lines with water and watch as the colors run down the paper!
15. Absorbing colored water with papertowel.  Put out cups of colored water and pipettes..let the children squirt colored water onto the table, then lay a piece of paper towel on top...watch as the colors are absorbed into the paper towel.   

This is a small list that will hopefully get your creative juices flowing!!

Once again, I firmly believe:  PLAY COUNTS!!