Egg or Stone?

The grade ones were reading a story called Merlin’s Dragons. They discovered that the dragon eggs that lived under King Vortigen’s tower looked very much like the stone that Ms. Graham found on the beach. It was the right shape to be an egg. It even had a crack in it. Immediately an inquiry was born.

Children found fabric from the art centre and nestled it into a big basket. Someone remembered the manicure table with a lamp attached. It was found and set up as an incubator. When one young scientist asked, “How will we know if it is an egg or a stone?” the inquiry was full bloom. The stethoscopes were dug out of the medical prop box, and everyone learned how they are properly used.

Students decided that every time they listened to the egg, they should write a note about what they had learned. Since we use clip boards to control our animal research, they chose a clip board just for dragon information. Copious notes appeared on the clip board. The incubator was surrounded with children discussing and questioning.

One scientist announced that he had always believed in dragons because he knew of the existence of Komodo Dragons. He asked for help researching on the web and found data to use in a report about the Komodo dragon. His report absolutely convinced most the children that dragons existed…sometime…long ago.

A scientist then discovered that the sounds of the stethoscope on the “egg” were the same as the sounds of the stethoscope on the rock on the science table. His notes caused a renewed interest in proving that the egg was in fact alive!

With the great interest in the kinds of dragons in literature and on the web (dragons.com), one young girl decided she was quite frightened of the prospect of a dragon hatching in our room. Even though, several children had written to the principal and the vice principals telling them that we had a potential fire hazard in the room, she felt we should do more. The fire extinguisher was checked.

Two scientist were contacted to discuss the possibility of the egg ever hatching. One responded by phone, that he believed we just don’t know enough about dragons to have any definite answers. If they took lots of notes, we might be able to teach others about dragons. He suggested we investigate the gestation time of other creatures that hatch and those that are “born alive and well”. (Out of this has come another inquiry into the size of eggs and the resulting creature’s size-using ostrich eggs, hen’s eggs and books .)

The other scientist reminded us that some creatures are hatched naked and unable to care for themselves while other birds are hatched fully feather and ready to fly! So much to learn!

All of this only prompted the idea that we had a problem that needed a solution. So, we made a plan-”a cunning plan that can not fail.” Every child made a plan for “ what will we do if the dragon egg hatches?” These plans were discussed. One fellow recommended that we do so many poems for our poetry binders, that we should make up a poem or a song about the solutions to the problem. Thus began our poem

One morning I walked into the room to discover that my most frightened young scientist had solved her own problem, after talking with her parents. The only way she could safely be in the room with a dragon would be to get the dragon used to her voice. So, she reversed the usual method of using stethoscopes, putting the ear part around the egg and speaking into the flat disc. “Hello dragon. I am Sofia” she repeated.

From that came songs composed for the dragon, chats and stories being read to the egg. Another interesting life connection was that lots of talk was generated about mothers who sing to their babies before they are born. Is that why babies know their mothers when they are born? Is Mrs. Birdsell (our dance teacher) singing to her baby?

Lastly a flag has been built by the same student that reads, “Dragon Be gone or Behave” ( a quote she remembered from “the Secret Garden” just performed by our school.)

Dragons have been drawn, costumes have been created, homes have been built from blocks and the questions continue to arrive with the children every morning!

How can we predict the size of the dragon? What if he is a “nasty, nasty dragon?” What if he is from another country, how will we know where?

Can we really ship him to china if he looks scary? Do we need two lamps to warm the egg even more? And ultimately, is it ever going to hatch?