Projects
The Chocolate Project
Noticing that our children loved to mix ‘potions,’ a student teacher offered a chance to experience glue with many scents….mustard, spices, cocoa, lavender, etc. Over and over, the children returned to work with the cocoa-scented glue. The student asked ‘do you know where cocoa and chocolate come from?’ and a project was born. The children did not believe that cocoa originates from a tree, and so we investigated deeply over the next few weeks…. 
After some difficulty in locating cocoa beans, a community business finally loaned some to us. We drew them, then replicated them with clay, since they had to be returned. 
After the children discovered (though books and online searches) chocolate factories, they decided we should make one. Using loose parts and recycled materials, this invitation was offered. 
The factory contained many ramps and chutes for the beans to travel from one place to another. One challenge, being addressed here, was to keep the beans from bouncing back out of the receptacle at the end. Such problem solving! 
The completed chocolate factory was placed outside our classroom for others to see and explore. Labels explained what each part of the factory was for. Older children from within our school were fascinated by this project and often stopped to chat about the factory and ask questions. 
As the project evolved, we created pedagogical documentation that traced the children’s journey and their thinking, together with the teachers’ reflections
Sue Stacey
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