Slice of Life Story Challenge March 10 - A Moment To Ponder A Puzzle

Sunni and Sass are still at an age where they enjoy my jokes. I am making the most of it. Whether at home just sitting around, in a café, driving in the car, or at the beach, they frequently ask, -Tell us a joke, PLEEEAASSE!

So naturally, I oblige. I willingly embrace any opportunity to play the part of the story teller. The look of wonderment that quickly turns to puzzlement and then finally onto realization is a wonderful process to watch unfold. They can’t be too scarred. They continue asking to hear more.  

At the beach today, Sass, aged ten, asked for a puzzle as we sat together on the sand. So, I willingly proffered the following standby…
How far can a dog run into a forest?
She immediately got that quizzical look on her face. -Followed by an audible, ‘Eh?’
Sass thought for a while, looked out towards the water before turning back to me and admitting, ‘I give up, tell me.’  So I showed her how to work it out.

The sand became my teaching resource. Using a stick I drew a rudimentary forest and marked its boundaries. I picked up a shell to represent a dog and placed it at the edge or entry to the forest.  I then asked Sass to mark the mid point of the forest. I picked up shell dog began to move the token through the forest on the sand.
‘The dog is running into the forest,’ I said. Sass was now watching me intently.
She smiled, but said nothing.  As my hand passed the mid point she experienced that wonderful ah ha moment.
‘Now it’s running out of the forest,’ she said.
‘Exactly.’ I said. So how far can a dog run into a forest? I asked restating the original question.
‘Half way!’ said Sass with obvious delight.

Ah, grasshopper, now you see…

Comments

  1. Jackie10 March 2013 at 23:48

    Fun!! An adult joke:

    Person: So I have CDO, which is also called OCD. But I like to put it in alphabetical order, as it should be.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11 March 2013 at 00:10

    A darling and delightful moment. Always teaching...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rissa11 March 2013 at 00:19

    A perfectly perfect opportunity to scaffold!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Carrie H12 March 2013 at 13:31

    Neat! I love teaching that takes the form of something else, like story-telling, or "quality time."

    ReplyDelete

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