“My fast red truck!”

There was a boy in our centre who was always mad on playing on the tractor and scooters, he was never inside making ‘constructions’. I noticed that he really enjoyed playing with trucks and any big machinery, so I decided to read him a book on trucks, this triggered him to want to make a truck. He then excitedly moved on to the carpentry shed where he began his project.
He grabbed different sized pieces of wood, big and little examining every piece as he picked them up. I had never seen him so involved in a project like this before. Children came into the carpentry shed curiously asking questions,
M: “What are you making P?”
P: “I am making a mean as truck, It gonna be red coz reds a fast colour!”.
M: “Can I help??”
P: “Yeah! You can get me some wheels and some strong as nails”.
Then M gathered all the required materials and handed them to P, then he stood back as P built his master piece.
M helped him to hold pieces and gave him ideas as to where the different parts should go, but P basically had it in his head what he was going to do.
Once he had finished building his truck he took it inside so he could paint it red and make it “go fast!”. Once he had finished painting it, he put it up on the drying rack asking me every five minutes if it was dry yet!, I told him that when he came back to kindergarten next it would be dry. So he waited, and he must have been talking about it all day and night at home because as soon as he came back into the Kindergarten he remembered his truck!
He played with the truck all day, inside and out.
Noticed learning:
I noticed that when I observed P and noticed that he had a great interest in trucks, I was able to shift him in a different direction, and extend on his interest by reading him a book that then made him want to make a truck in the carpentry shed.
P was using his knowledge about the process and problem solving that was required to make his truck. He was using social skills to communicate to me and M about the process of the truck construction.
By using a process approach, P was able to concentrate on the ‘doing’ of the project rather than the ‘final product’. Which Smorti (1999), discusses that children are more encouraged to design, appraise and make their work if they appreciate that the process is more important than the final product.
“Nothing sparks children’s desire to learn more than investigating things they already know and care about.” (Friedman, 2005, p.1) I believe this really relates to this story because P had such a great interest and love for trucks and heavy machinery, which is why he persisted at the activity for so long.