I have learned that if the class is truly interested in something, they will use reading, writing, and math skills as they explore their interests naturally. I observe and listen closely to discover what they are interested in. Sometimes a book or story will spark an interest. Sometimes an interest is sparked by something a friend shared with the class. Sometimes I notice interests by listening to their stories and their play. Our last large group interest was sparked when one of our friends found an almost dead praying mantis. The kids were fascinated with it and wanted to look closer, observe, and find out more. Every time we went outside they wanted to look for insects! I set out some invitations for them to explore insects further. They quickly started looking through books and models of insects to see what they could find out. I started encouraging them to record what they noticed using different materials. One of their favorites was the book Microsculpture:Portraits of Insects by Levon Biss. It truly took a closer look at insects including closeups of legs, wings, eyes feet, etc. it was such a beautiful book. I set it out with materials for them to create their own beautiful portraits of insects showing what they noticed. They are starting to figure out how to try to spell unfamiliar words by writing the sounds they hear in words. They practiced labeling their insects here also. But the insects they got the most excited about were the ones completely covering our milkweed plants! They wanted to know all about them! We looked at a picture of one and made our thinking visible by recording what we saw, thought and wondered. Then we got our Entomologist tools, took them outside and found out everything we could about them! They were amazing and thorough Entomologists! We recorded everything we noticed and then put some of our information in the computer and found out they are called Milkweed bugs! We then did an observational drawing as Entomologists and used our writing skills to label what it is and some body parts. Here is the display outside our room showing everything we learned about them! The other insects all took a backseat to the milkweed bug! I could have done a traditional insect unit, but these kids noticed something in their environment where they could truly experience it, so I followed the direction they took our insect study. I often let the kids direct our curriculum! They show me what they want to learn and I follow their lead and learn along side them. They were much more involved, interested and excited about learning as we followed their interest. Also, this fell naturally into our science standards of living things and what they need! I can’t wait to see what other interests this group will have that we can dig deeper into! They are definitely bringing in leaves by the bucketful... Here are some other things going on in our classroom: We are still working on those fine motor skills! Our finger muscles need a lot of work! Stories are being created in all of the areas of our room as we learn about story making! Here they are encouraged to show math in an open ended way. At the moment they are working on the numbers 1-10, shapes, writing numbers to 10, counting objects and matching to the correct number, counting to 25, subitizing and patterns. They are also learning to notice math all around us and how we use it in our every day lives. Some Fall art inspiration with sunflowers. They drew pictures of Mrs. Coberly wearing Michigan State colors and wrote “Mrs. Coberly loves Sparty!” Then we decorated her door! They loved this! Unfortunately, the Buckeye/Spartan game did not end well for me! It has been a busy place filled with all kinds of learning!
The insects inquiry based learning project is a great way to support your grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, and homeschool students as they begin learning about the inquiry process. Use these no-prep differentiated templates to get your students using their research skills and find answers to their inquiry questions. Students use the five step inquiry process to find answers to questions about insects. The materials in the insects inquiry package help make the inquiry process easy for your students and the planning process easy for you. Your kids will enjoy writing insects inquiry projects they can be proud of! ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ Included In The Inquiry Project Package: inquiry posters bulletin board headings step-by-step inquiry posters question cards research templates presentation ideas poster class book templates self, peer, and teacher assessments rubrics © Regier Educational Resources ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ This inquiry resource includes options and differentiated templates so you can provide students in your class with the supports they need to be successful at completing an inquiry project. Choose the templates and options that best meet the individual learning needs of the your students. Related Blogposts: How To Teach The Inquiry Method In Five Easy Steps ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ Look What Teachers Are Saying About Inquiry Packages: "THIS WAS ABSOLUTELY A PERFECT BUNDLE FOR MY INQUIRY UNIT! I would HIGHLY recommend this to anyone looking for something that takes you through the entire process with ease and alignment." - Lynda M. "Outstanding resource for inquiry." - Rachel W. "You explain the inquiry process very well. I like the self-reflection sheets and rubrics. It is a well thought out packet to support inquiry learning." - Andrea H. "Excellent way for my little learners to start the inquiry based process. They felt great ownership over their finished product. Great resource." - Jennifer R. "This resource is EXACTLY what I was looking for to teach an inquiry research project. AMAZING visuals and I greatly appreciate the black and white option. :)" - Sticky Glue and Untied Shoes ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ Inquiry Projects are available on the following topics: Animals Dinosaurs Farm Animals Illnesses and Diseases Inquiry For Any Subject Area Insects Magnets Oceans Plants Sports Weather ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ Frequently Asked Questions: Are all the materials I need included in this resource? The only other materials you will need are books, magazines, or access to the internet. Students will need a source of information to find the answers to their inquiry questions. Do the materials allow for differentiation? There are two types of templates provided. Some templates have regular lines and some have primary lines. You can easily build additional differentiation into these materials by the expectations you set for your students. If you have students that find it hard to focus or have low writing output, you may require them to only consult one source for information. If you have students that need to be challenged, you may require them to consult two or three sources of information as well as writing an exciting introduction and a concluding sentence or paragraph. ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ Connect with me: Want daily writing tips, strategies, and ideas? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Looking for easy ways to teach writing in your classroom? Visit my blog. Like free writing activities? CLICK HERE ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ Want free resources? Leaving feedback leads to FREE resources for you and is greatly appreciated. I thank you! Each review you leave provides you with credit points for future purchases. Simply go to "My Purchases" and leave a review. Hit the green FOLLOW button. When you hit the green "follow" button you'll: find out when new products are released. receive notifications of sales on my products. ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿
We often use loose material compositions in our classroom as a way for children to tell us what they know. We set out various mater...
I have learned that if the class is truly interested in something, they will use reading, writing, and math skills as they explore their int...
This Bug/Insect Exploration activity is fantastic for a classroom setting, a daycare or home school environment, or as an extension to your educational learning home. Children can explore how to build a bug/insect with a variety of materials. Great for a Montessori or Reggio Emilia inspired environment. Materials Included: - Sectional organizing tray - Wooden card stand - 14 laminated bug/insect cards - Chalkboard (approx 6"x8") - Clipboard w/ paper - Small river pebbles - Large black rocks - Round wooden discs - Sticks and Toothpicks - [display mat, wicker basket, crayons, and chalk are NOT included] Suggestions for use: - Place this work in a place for your child/children to easily access - Let them explore without any directions - Use this in conjunction with a Spring/Insect unit - Provide book about bugs/Insects for further exploration Important Information: - Recommended for children ages 3+ as there are small parts. If using with young children please keep a close eye on them. - Some of these materials are made with unfinished wood and may have some exposed wood splinters.
Montessori-inspired insect themed learning activities and free printables aimed at children ages 3-6.
And we are back!!! Spring break was wonderful and just what I needed to get refreshed for the last quarter! I can’t believe I am saying last quarter!! It was so great seeing my kiddos on Monday. Their hugs and excitement on the first day back from break made this week so much more fun! […]
Check out this Insects Printables and Insect Activities for Kindergarten! I am so excited to introduce teachers to the easy-to-use Insect Print & Play
This post is part 1 in my inquiry series. To learn more about inquiry click through to see my many other posts about inquiry. If you are new to my blog,
Helping K-2 Teachers Like You Save Time, Grow Instructional Skills, and Teach With Confidence!
Worksheets for teaching the Letter A. Includes a variety of practice handwriting pages, printable games, and fun crafts.Initial Sounds I Spy Activity Letter APreschoolers can use this I Spy Activit
Ewww! It's a bug! Or maybe you have more adventurous kids that would be saying, "How cool!" My girls flip flop every month or so on their love and hate for all things buggy. Rollie Pollies under a log? Cool. Spider crawling in the bathtub? Definite, Ew! But the friendly critters on this free printable bug graphing die are absolutely on the cute and fun list. We love using our graphing dice and this is a great one to add to our collection of themes.
The season of insects is upon us, so why not take that excitement and curiosity and add some (shhh... academics) to it. We're sharing 15 insect activities guaranteed to engage your students for days to come. You definitely need to add #14 to your lesson plans next week!
Check out this Insects Printables and Insect Activities for Kindergarten! I am so excited to introduce teachers to the easy-to-use Insect Print & Play
Have you ever had live creatures in your classroom? There is something quite magical about having a living, breathing part of nature in the classroom to inspire some deep thinking. Beyond the obvio…
Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.
Create my Paper Insect Collection Tutorial with free bug printables! It's like you have your very own bug collection, but it's paper!
Never planned to homeschool, now wouldn't trade it for the world
My kids love to learn about bugs and insects! This week that is our focus. We are only two days in, but we have accomplished a lot. Take...
We used plastic insects to compare length. We placed the insects in order from tallest to shortest. Then the students illustrated their own ...
These Insect Picture Word Cards will work well with a Bug Theme. Included words are butterfly, caterpillar, ladybug, bee, ant, dragonfly,
Draw the missing half of an insect to complete the picture! These drawing prompts are good for studying symmetry and entomology with kids at the same time.
“The children experiencing the transformation of the caterpillars to butterflies was magical. I can’t help but relate this experience to the uniqueness of teaching kindergarten and bein…
Check out this Insects Printables and Insect Activities for Kindergarten! I am so excited to introduce teachers to the easy-to-use Insect Print & Play
A blog dedicated to help teachers in preschool and kindergarten find quality, hands on educational activities for their homes and classrooms.
In the study of nature, it is such an easy and powerful activity to have the children draw and label the subject of current study. This helps students own the information and remember it. It is far more engaging than giving them a worksheet with lines to fill in the words to label a pre-printed […]
This science activity involves creating an ant life cycle craft, a fun insect-themed activity for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten.
Have you ever had live creatures in your classroom? There is something quite magical about having a living, breathing part of nature in the classroom to inspire some deep thinking. Beyond the obvio…
Telling the Tme Game using cute, free insect printables in a clock activity for learning to tell the time with bug theme activities.
We have been buzz, buzz, busy learning about insects. I do love science, but real bugs, ummmm, no thank you. I'll leave the dissection of insects and up close & personal to 7th grade science. Instead I opted for a cuter insect label sheet. (Please note: animals were not harmed while making the following activities :) Insects Label Insects Label Sp
A blog dedicated to help teachers in preschool and kindergarten find quality, hands on educational activities for their homes and classrooms.
Igniting our students natural curiousity is something we strive to achieve every day, week, month and throughout the school year with hopes that each student begins to see themselves as a lifelong learner inside and outside the walls of our classroom! Setting up the learning environment to support their wonderments and guide their learning is a very exciting process since it can be one that leads in many different directions based on their interests, knowledge, strengths and needs! As a teaching team, my wonderful DECE, Heidi Theis, and myself look to this process as one with endless possibilities and we always enjoy planning purposeful provocations and setting up the environment as a third teacher for our students. This post documents the beginning of our Snail Inquiry as we start to create new chapters in our journey as a class this year! To begin, our provocation was something quite simple. Ms. Theis found some lovely visitors (snails) in her garden at home and after much discussion around how we could use them as a hook for an inquiry, we brought them into our classroom. I think it's safe to say that when any living thing becomes part of the classroom family and environment it immediately gets positive reactions and excitement from students! Here is how we set up our Snail Space as a invitation for learning: 1. Snails are kept in an exposed habitat of a clear glass bowl (with aerated lid) placed on top of a mirror for added depth and reflection. 2. Non-fiction and fiction books displayed around the learning space to promote literacy learning, research, investigations, wonderments. 3. Basket is filled with sticky notes along with a mason jar of pencils to invite students to record their thinking and ideas. 4. Clipboards with "I see...I think...I wonder..." template to support their thinking and to invite responses. 5. Magnifying glasses in tin for deeper exploration and discoveries. 6. Chart Paper with "I see...I think...I wonder..." template enlarged for students to place their sticky note ideas. Once this Snail Space was discovered by our students, we didn't waste anytime documenting our students' initial theories and wonderments: I see... "I see 3 snails. Look 1, 2, 3." - R.K. "I saw a baby snail I think." - J.S. "I see the snails digging." - V.D. "I see the snails lying down in the dirt." - E.Sk. "I see growing big." - Z.P. "I see dirt, rocks and leaves in their bowl." - L.M. "I see their shells and they have swirls on it." - M.P. "I see some big ones and little ones." - D.K. I think... "Snails don't have eyes." - R.V. "I think those are his eyes because I see little black dots but I don't know." - M.P. "Snails need slime so they can walk." - Z.P. "They need the things (tentacles) so they can breath maybe." - G.B. "The shell is for them sleeping in and it needs to be dark." - R.V. "Snails need slime so they can move you know." - C.S. "The inside of the shell it must be slimy all over and then it (the shell) gets all around and that's why the snail is slimy." - D.K. "Snails need lots and lots and lots of slime so they can move." - T.B. "Snails come from eggs." - T.D. "They play in their house and they are toys in their house and they like that." - R.T. "I think snails eat lots of leaves." - E.Sk. I wonder... "I wonder is snails eat lettuce to eat if they are hungry." - S.R. "I wonder if snails can turn into a slug?" - E.Sk. "I looked in a book and I found that snails have eyes on their tentacles. They eat lots of plants." - S.R. "I wonder how snails get their shells?" - G.B. After listening, documenting and learning alongside our students based on the following question prompts, Ms. Theis and I knew that our next steps would be to extend their learning and interests about snails into other areas of our program. But I'm going to stop and pause right here because Ms. Theis and I have had many insightful conversations with other educators around how to do take a provocation/inquiry to the next level. In other words, igniting a provocation and gaining student interest is one thing, but how do you take it further and dig deeper in the learning? As a teaching team, we are still learning ourselves and can attest to the feeling of just "scratching the surface" with an inquiry. I hope that the next bit of information about our Snail Inquiry illustrates just how we have integrated this topic into other content areas and catered to the strengths/needs of our students through differentiated opportunities! If you can believe it...two snails escaped at different times from their habitat. One was discovered in a book when two students wanted to do more research and the other was found on the mirror while a student was writing down their observations! Here is where our Snail Inquiry has led us so far... 1. Small interest groups of students have used the books and other text forms to research about snails and independently record their ideas on our collaborative thinking space (chart paper) - (Curriculum links: Personal/Social/Emotional Development, Oral Communication, Reading, Media Literacy). 2. With small groups, Ms. Theis and I have led mini lessons based upon their initial theories (e.g. parts of a snail, how they move, what they look like, feel like, etc) and had the snails out of the bowl for open exploration - (Curriculum links: Personal/Social/Emotional Development, Oral Communication, Writing, Science & Technology). 3. Students have begun to independently draw pictures of snails using various mediums (paper and markers, water colour paints, observational drawing/painting, diagrams, labels) - (Curriculum links: Personal/Social/Emotional Development, Reading, Writing, Oral Communication, Visual Arts). 4. Students have created words for our class Word Wall based on their newly acquired knowledge around the names for the parts of a snail (e.g. tentacles, eyes, shell, mouth, foot, slime, snail) and have been seen using those words throughout daily writing opportunities - (Curriculum links: Reading, Writing). 5. In small focus groups based on each student's interests around snails and background/newly acquired knowledge, students worked with an educator to record their new observations, ideas, and wonderments on sentence strips for our documentation wall display - (Curriculum links: Personal/Social/Emotional Development, Writing, Oral Communication). 6. We have shared our learning, daily discoveries, and wonderments on Twitter and have connected with other Kindergarten educators whose classes are also inquiring about snails! 7. We skyped with Mrs. Lowe's Kindergarten class from Winnipeg, Manitoba to interview, inquire and learn more about their snails, their habitat, etc (**Blog post to come soon!) 8. In small groups, students have begun to create models of snails using wire and beads to contribute to a wall display in our classroom! 9. Small interest groups of students have begun to create their own Snail Books based on their learning and knowledge of snails. 10. Some students have begun to create 3D models of snails using open-ended materials (e.g. playdough, collage materials - tissue paper, wire, glue, paper, wikki sticks, on the light table with various transparent items, etc). *The above are only a few examples of all of the incredible learning going on within the walls of our classroom! "Good morning Mrs. Lowe's class!" A snail in progress by E.Sk. A snail in progress by G.B. As outlined in brief, you can see how we have tried to weave in multiple elements of the curriculum into our inquiry which is embedded throughout our timetable each day. We have plans to continue to connect digitally with Mrs. Lowe's class to help us dig deeper into our understanding of snails and continue to share our journey! We truly can't wait to see where this takes us as a class! Stay tuned for more updates! The next few paragraphs of this post are geared towards educators as you begin to create a student-led inquiry in your classrooms! We had the wonderful honour of being featured on our good friend, Joanne Babalis' blog (http://myclassroomtransformation.blogspot.ca/2013/07/on-display-jocelyn-schmidt-and-heidi.html) in connection to our Cloud Inquiry last year, and I thought it would be relevant to share some of our interview as a way of supporting how Ms. Theis and I work through the inquiry planning process: How to integrate the learning from other subject areas: During the proposed planning process, we try to tie in the curriculum expectations that best fit our students' theories and where the learning might go. Inquiry-based learning is wonderful for clustering expectations underneath an "umbrella" topic and we are always surprised by just how many expectations this one inquiry could cover. There were and continue to be many opportunities to extend our students' learning into other content areas. By using the "Big Ideas" in the Full Day Kindergarten curriculum, we are able to select the best holistic expectations for the inquiry and help set the tone for the learning and our goals for what we want our students to walk away knowing and being able to do. Suggestions for Teaching Teams about ways to begin an inquiry: 1. Flexibility is key! Sometimes your inquiry takes you places you didn't expect but that's ok! It can end up going above and beyond what you "planned" for but that's the beauty of it! The learning then becomes incredibly meaningful since it came FROM your students and you co-learn together. For example, from our Cloud Inquiry, two other inquiries were formed throughout the year both of which we never anticipated and both were also huge highlights: Our Airplane/Airport Inquiry (e.g. provocation: when airplanes fly through the clouds) and our Ice Inquiry (e.g. provocation: after making connections to snow and how it's frozen water from the clouds). By running with your students' interests may mean that your day plans don't always pan out, but we encourage any educator teams to embrace each learning opportunity since it may lead you to an exciting, engaging, and thought-provoking outcome! 2. Assessment -- As a teaching team, we always have a mutual understanding and appreciation for each other's assessment strengths and weaknesses. With this understanding, we developed a "sharing" system whereby we will send our documentation notes, transcriptions, photos, videos, etc to each other and in the process, discuss what we observed, the learning that occurred, and areas of strength/need/next steps for our students. These files are stored on both of our computers so that when it comes time to report on our students' learning, they are easily accessible and used as a backbone for our conversations. 3. It's ok to "let go" of control -- This is something that we have grown to appreciate together as a teaching team. As educators, we often feel the need to "know" what's planned for a particular day/time/period, etc. A "structured" environment provides comfort since we know what to expect throughout the day and from our students. However, inquiry-based learning has flipped this mentality around for us because sometimes the learning does not go according to "plan" and we have learned to adapt, react, and "roll with it." To our surprise, stamina and student engagement has improved, conversations have become more rich and robust, and the learning becomes more meaningful and student-centered. That being said, and as hard as it is to do, letting go of control does not mean letting go of routine/expectations/classroom management, etc, it just means shifting your mentality around how the learning occurs in your classroom. We hope this paints a clearer picture of how we have embraced Inquiry-based learning in our classroom. Please feel free to leave a message below and we would be happy to answer!
Project/Inquiry Based Learning has been a passion of mine ever since I discovered it about 5 years ago. Since then, I have stepped out of my comfort zone and transformed the way I teach from a typical Thematic Based style through baby steps taken each year and with the help of an amazing on-line community of teachers with the same passion (you all know who you are!). My first baby step was taking themes and science/social studies standards and making them more student lead and project based. I got rid of the two week time limit each theme had in the past and allowed more time for students to dig deeper. I found that students would take my broad theme (oceans) and desire to dig deeper into more specific parts of the theme (sharks, jellyfish, ect.). As time went on, I was able to take the biggest step and totally let go of my themes and allowed the children's interests drive my instruction, incorporating the standards through those interests. I am blessed enough to also teach in a district that does not mandate the curriculum I use. Curriculum programs are purchased to use as tools for our toolbox but not required. Us teachers are trusted and encouraged by our superintendent to write our own curriculum as long as the standards are met. My building principle also has that kind of faith in us as professionals! They know that when it comes to children learning what they need to learn, we are the experts! Project/Inquiry Based Learning is highly encouraged in all grades Pre-K through 12. Some wonder how I plan for this style of teaching and how it flows. Here are some of the tools that I use. Once I notice an interest from the students (usually found out through experiences set up for them to explore during play) , I find out what their knowledge and misconceptions are about the subject. Kind of like a KWL chart! I list all that they know about the subject we will dive into. Then I ask what they wonder. I list all of their questions. NOW I can plan! I take their wonderings and create a web map showing the different directions they want to take the inquiry and possible experiences that will help them find answers to their wonderings. I got this web map from the amazing Joanne Babalis and her amazing blog http://myclassroomtransformation.blogspot.com. On the back I have all of the Literacy and Math Standards listed so that I can highlight the ones we will focus on through the inquiry and project. I add any Science and Social Studies Standards to the bottom of the web map. Here is the link to the web map if you would like it: Web Organizer Here is the link to the Common Core Standards Sheet for Kindergarten Language and Math: Kindergarten CC Standards Once I organize my thoughts, I create my inquiry plan using a template I created based on one I found from a Texas school district. It was so long ago I have no memory of which district but if I find out I will add them to give them credit. Their form was 3 pages long. I tweaked it to fit it all on one page. I use this to show the objectives and vocabulary, plan the investigations and materials I will need, show how they will organize the data about what they have learned, possible projects that could result from the inquiry and how we will present the project to the community. Here is the link to this inquiry planner if you would like to download it: Inquiry/Project Planner The next step is to start the investigation phase. In early childhood I set out experiences for them to explore and document what they notice. We also do whole group and small group investigations through books, videos and hands-on experiences. As we answer questions, we add the answers to our wonder chart to show our new learning. We organize this data in a web map format for all to see. The start of an inquiry wall. Information is added to it as we learn. Once we have investigated we use organizational maps to show what we learn. In kindergarten it usually consists of web maps, circle maps, tree charts (can/have/are maps), and brace maps (to show part to whole). We will chose one or two to organize our data. The next step is the project. We take what we learn and create something to show it! The projects can be individual, small group, or whole group. Some examples of projects in our room have been turning an area of our room into an ocean, forest and sky to show how animals adapt in the winter. The kids signed up to be on the migration team, adaption team or hibernation team. They each became experts on their part during the investigation and worked on their part of the project. A cave, forest, sky and ocean were created to show what animals do in the winter. Animals were created, labeled and added to the habitats. A group interested in map making and migration created this map showing migration patterns of monarchs, geese and grey whales. Another project was our The Sound Exploration Area created for our school. They saw a need (an area to explore sound) investigated different ways of creating sound, organized the data and designed a Sound Exploration Area! An area for everyone in our school to explore sound which is in our science standards. They have also turned the inside of our room into a great hall and medeival kitchen and the outside of our room into a castle wall complete with moat and drawbridge after investigating castles! The outside of our castle. A map created by a group interested in maps and where different castles were found in the world. A big book created by a small group about who lived in castles. A small group project during our castle inquiry. They have created murals and big books to show their learning also. A mural planned and created by Kindergartners. The last step is the presentation to show what they had learned. The kids LOVE this part and I've never had a child refuse to present! They are so confident of what they have learned and proud of what they have done that they cannot wait to share it! I am always so impress with their speaking and listening skills during these presentations! Sometimes small groups go to other classrooms and present what they learned, sometimes we invite parents or other classes to our room to see our presentation, and sometimes we create a video to share with others. They create maps, big books, and, get to show off the projects created at this time! Showing what they have learned through these projects gives the projects an even bigger sense of purpose! They can't wait to show others what they have learned and done! Presenting different weapons used during medieval times. I have never had so much fun teaching in my 22 years as I have he past four years! I could never go back to the way I had done it I the past. The benefits of this way of teaching are not only meeting the standards (the old way did that too) but the 21st Century Skills they are forced to develope when they learn in this type of environment. When inquiring, investigating and creating within thier own interest, they are motivated to collaborate, problem solve, handle frustration, persist if things don't work the first time, and learn from their mistakes. They have to use critical thinking skills and develope research skills. When kids develop these skills, they can learn ANYTHING! My new passion that I am learning to incorporate in my classroom is Playbased Learning! I have been amazed by the learning taking place in this way also....but that's another post! SaveSave
A blog dedicated to help teachers in preschool and kindergarten find quality, hands on educational activities for their homes and classrooms.
I love using interactive lapbooks in the classroom. They are fun to create, engaging and can be used throughout the year to review skills taught. I finally completely my Lapbook Bundle and I am happy to share the lapbooks included with you. Whether you think your learners will enjoy creating all of the lapbooks, if you
Isn’t it funny how little ones are just curious about everything and totally don’t have that grossed out reaction that we have as adults? I have to admit bugs creep me out, so I was totally not excited for this week’s theme. I tried my best to contain my feelings about insects so Madelynn could […]
We often use loose material compositions in our classroom as a way for children to tell us what they know. We set out various mater...
We "found" a little visitor a couple of weeks back in our classroom...a spider! Yes, he was hiding (or should I saw crawling) right near our blocks area. All I remember hearing was loud shrieks (of excitement, not fear) from the students. When I got to that area, I realized that they saw a spider. So here I am, thinking...what am I going to do with this little fellow? I am actually quite frightened by insects (yes, even little spiders!) but I thought this would be a great teachable moment. So I found a small container and we gently scooped our new friend into it. And so our new spider inquiry began... The children spent a long time starring and observing the spider in his new home. They had a lot of questions about how he got into our classroom! S.P. - "Why does the spider want to come into our classroom?" N.T. - "Does he live outside?" M.P. - "He probably has a family outside looking for him." We wrote down our wonders about this new pet of ours and set out to find out more about him. I took a group of students down to the library to get some non-fiction books on spiders. The children spent a long time looking through and researching about spiders. They set out to find what kind of spider he was. They also decided that our new pet needed a name. So they took a vote. We ended up deciding on "Phil Kessel" - yes, he is named after a hockey player! Some children wanted to draw the different spiders they found in the books. We looked at how many body parts a spider had, how many legs and where his eyes were. Our class decided that the spider needed a proper home. So after searching through the books and reading about where spiders live and what they like to be surrounded by and eat, we made a list of things we needed to collect and add to his home. At recess, we went out to the big field and started collecting twigs, small rocks, grass and leaves. We learned that a spider has 2 main body parts, pedipalps (to turn his prey into liquid and suck him up) and a spinneret (to make a web). We also learned that the reason spiders don't stick to their own webs was because they have oil on the bottom of their legs. We wanted to make our own spider, complete with all the body parts, so we started creating him out of paper mache. It was so much fun mixing the flour and water together to get things ready! We also used yarn to create a web hanging from our ceiling to hang our spider on...right on top of our real pet! The students decided to create insects at the creative table to add to the web. I wanted to read the students one of my favourite books....Aaargh Spider! by Lydia Monks. I found the book on You Tube and showed it to them on our Bright Links board....they loved saying "aaargh spider" on each page! Something happened on the Friday of that week...when the students came to school one child noticed that the door was left open on the cage and "Phil" was gone! The students thought he had escaped! We searched all around our classroom for him! He was nowhere to be found! So the students decided to make "lost" posters and got to work making these signs to post around the school in the hopes that we would be able to find our lost spider. We posted them everywhere...including on the staff room door. Other students from around the school loved helping us look for "Phil". Something happened last week...while in the library the students found a spider! But it wasn't "Phil", as they quickly realized that this spider looked a little different. He was a different colour and a little bigger in size (yikes!)...but they wanted to put him in our cage and observe him too. One student even made a sign that the spider had been found! This is a picture of our documentation wall. I hope to add to it as we learn more about our new spider...whose name is, ready for this..."Hello Kitty".
