I don't know how to do it! Can you show me how?

Today the students started to work on their own designs that will be used to make them on a bead loom in the coming weeks. Some of the students didn't know where to start and they were overwhelmed by choosing their own design instead of copying a design. One of the students occupied most of my time because she kept asking for help. She didn't want to make her own design, instead she wanted to make a design that she did last week by looking at one of the templates on the computer. I started by asking her where the squares on one side of the design should be placed and she realized that the design was symmetrical and the squares were located at the same spot on each side of the design. Then we started to work together on the tree in the middle of the design. She realized that as she moved from the bottom of the tree to the top that the y-axis number got larger and x-axis values decreased. She continued this pattern to the top of the tree. Once she was done she realized that some of the beads in the tree design were not the colors that she wanted. She asked me how she could change it. I told her that I didn't know how to unless she removed them and started over. I went over to help another student and when I came back I noticed that she changed the colors of the beads. I asked her how she did that and she replied "I found out where they were located and I put in the locations and changed the color". It was amazing to see a student that did not know how to plot points on a graph figure out where a bead is located and change the color! There is hope for teaching students through exploration. Now the challenge is to take this knowledge and should her that she knows how to plot points when it is in the form of a math problem in school.