This story is set early in the school year, when half the children were four and half were five. The week before, they created holes in the sand and filled them with water, marveling at the way the water slowly disappeared. The holes became trenches, and the trenches...
Over the next several days the children continued to think about where the puddle goes when it evaporates. G articulated her theory in drawing. She explained: The puddles don’t go up in the air. They vibrate, and then they go back to the cloud, and then it rains....
It did not rain for the entire month of September and into October. “Why do we have boots here if it doesn’t rain?” one of the children asked. “So we can go puddle stomping if it rains,” I replied. Apparently the children kept my response...