The purpose of this blog is to make visible my professional inspirations, discoveries, and inquiries as well as our students as we work together along our learning journey. I hope that each post leaves you feeling inspired and intrigued by the capabilities of our youngest learners.
Last Friday, we had the wonderful experience of visiting Toronto's new Ripley's Aquarium. As a teaching team, we thought this was the perfect opportunity to use a field trip experience to support and enhance our current inquiry into oceans since students would see firsthand, all of the ocean life they've been inquiring about over the past month and a half.
When planning for a field trip, Heidi and I truly believe that it has to either support, enhance and/or celebrate the learning going on in the classroom. In this sense, we do not plan field trips unless they are relevant to the learning going on.
What do you see?
With this mentality, we feel like the experiences thus far that have supported our class inquiries both this year and in previous years, (e.g. visiting Buttonville Airport to support our Airplane/Airport inquiry, visiting McMichael Art Gallery's Tree Exhibit to support our Tree Inquiry) have truly made for meaningful learning opportunities before, during and after each experience for our students and us as a teaching team.
Sea anemones, clownfish, puffer fish and more!
Students engaged in an Aquarium Scavenger Hunt using the riddles they
came up with in class as clues!
We hope you enjoy the captured photographs from our most recent trip to the aquarium and we look forward to sharing with you how this experience has pushed our thinking back in our classroom! Stay tuned!
"What kind of shark is this? It's not a great white because it's not as
big as a great white shark." - T.B.
"I see the sharks' gills and big teeth!" - E.S.
"The stingray has a long stinger and uses its flaps to swim in the
water. How come some are big and some are small?" - R.K.
The diver was not only giving away high 5's, but he was also feeding
the stingrays!
The jellyfish were most certainly the highlight of the trip!
"I see all the tentacles and I wonder how they change colour
and swim with no eyes?" - C.S.
"The starfish have their mouths underneath but they have no eyes.
I wonder how they stick on the glass?" - V.D.
Students even got to touch Horseshoe crabs and see what they feel like.
Do you see the sea horse? Do you see the pacific kelp?
"Inquiry...requires more than simply answering questions or getting a right answer. It espouses investigation, exploration, search, quest, research, pursuit, and study. It is enhanced by involvement with a community of learners, each learning from the other in social interaction."(Kuklthau, C.C., Maniotes, L.K., & Caspari, A.K. (2007). Guided inquiry: Learning in the 21st century. Westport, CT & London: Libraries Unlimited.)
The following quote sheds light on the importance for us as educators to make the process and understanding of our students' learning transparent and in doing so, honour their interests, their thinking and their wonderings in a way that builds conversation and celebrates new learning together.
Our Wonder Wall that showcases students' thinking.
Over the past month, our Identity and Map Inquiry has been put on "pause," as one student has ignited interest and wonderings around sharks and oceans. What stemmed from a simple conversation between this SK student (E.S.) and 8 of his peers around what they know about sharks, has now led to a whole class inquiry with multiple entry points!
M.D. uses a non-fiction book to record what he knows
about sharks and how they travel in small groups.
M.D. shares his thinking using sticky notes and recorded
transcriptions of his wonderings.
As a teaching team, we embraced this interest and created learning opportunities that helped our students dig deeper into the learning, pose questions and answer wonderments. Together, we purposefully planned investigations that would push students’ thinking and never wasted any time celebrating their findings in small groups and with the class.
Inquiry in our classroom allows for every student to bring ideas to the table. Inquiry has given us the opportunity as educators to utilize student motivation as a catalyst for learning and in doing so, have seen firsthand the power of being a facilitator in the learning and witnessing our student construct their own knowledge with our support.
Inquiry is not posing the question, “What do you want to learn today?” but rather “what tools do you think we will need to learn about...”. Inquiry puts us educators in the position of facilitators and students in the position of active investigators. Inquiry does not mean we stop “direct instruction,” but it does mean that that instruction itself becomes more meaningful to students interests and yet still targets areas of need.
This post will showcase some of our captured photographs and videos thus far to show how, as a teaching team, we have taken this student interest and facilitated learning opportunities to extend and support their thinking in a variety of ways. Similarly, we have honoured where students' interests are underneath the umbrella topic of "Oceans" and purposefully planned provocations and hands-on experiences within our classroom that allow for every student to feel like an active investigator in this exciting inquiry!
Moreover, Heidi and I have been cognizant about separating this learning as an "inquiry" and not a "thematic" exploration. In doing so, we have had the privilege of working collaboratively with our Learning@School colleagues (Angie Harrison, Carmela Sita, Heather Jelley...to name a few) to dig deeper into how this can be achieved and in doing so, have co-created a "BIG IDEA" that stems from the Full Day Kindergarten curriculum for this inquiry. Throughout our Ocean Inquiry, children are active investigators that can communicate their results and findings from individual and group investigations in diverse ways.
With this lens in mind, Heidi and I have worked hard thus far to ensure that we dig deeper with our students to develop an understanding of this Big Idea and as a result, we continue to embrace this student-led inquiry and celebrate their learning in new ways!All in all, inquiry has allowed us in our classroom to truly reach all of our learners and through differentiation, we have been able to create a community of learners whereby motivation and determination are at the forefront of our program and planning!
Stay tuned to find out how our visit to Ripley's Aquarium of Canada gives us a new lens to dig deeper in our learning and inquiry around oceans and ocean life!
Post coming soon!
For educators: The following Capacity Building Series article entitled, "Inquiry-Based Learning" is a great resource that helps unpack this exciting and engaging way of teaching and learning!
Over the past 3 months, our class has been inquiring about who we are and where we come from! This wonderment around "identity" and what makes each of us special and unique was something Ms. Theis and I wasted no time on exploring with our students. What started from one of our SK students leaving to visit family in Egypt before the holidays and our students wondering where Egypt was on the map, led to a multi-facted inquiry that has branched off into many authentic directions!
A world map by T.D. (SK)
Our documentation panel
As we began to explore our "identity," many wonderful learning opportunities began to unravel. This post will sum up in brief some of those wonderful highlights to ensure privacy is still protected for our students' and their families!
We hope you enjoy our "Highlight Reel":
1. An interview with T.B. in Egypt through Skype! Here are some of our questions and T.B.'s responses: What does it look like in Egypt? T.B.:"Plants are green and I can see the ocean and lots of pools. The weather is summer and I have been making sand castles and see the pyramids too!"
What is your favourite Egyptian food? T.B.:"I like lots of carrots, beans and rice. It's yummy." V.D.: "I wonder if you talk a different language?" T.B.: "Yes, I speak Arabic!" J.S. (SK - boy): "How many pyramids did you see in Egypt?" T.B.: "I saw big, medium and small. There's also a guard for the pyramid to control if they're open or closed and who can go in and out and the guard has to say 'yes' or it's not safe."
2. "Whoever You Are" - by Mem Fox: After reading this story as a Read Aloud on Wednesday afternoon to support our inquiry, our class had a very insightful discussion around what makes each of us special and unique!
"My Dad comes from Poland and my mom comes from Italy."
"My family is from Jamaica and it's hot there!"
"My family is from Sri Lanka!"
"My Dad comes from Cambodia and my Mom comes from China!"
"My family is from Canada."
"My Mom comes from the Phillipines."
"My family comes from Vietnam. I don't see rain or snow in Vietnam but I see leaves on the ground sometimes."
"People's skins are different colours because everyone's countries are different."
"Everyone speaks Indian in my country. That's my language."
"We speak Tamil at home."
"Skin colours are different and they change because of the sun you know?"
Here is a list of some other fantastic Read Alouds that we have used to support this inquiry:
"Skin Again" by Bell Hooks
"This is me and where I am" by Joanne Fitzgerald
"The Skin You Live In" by Michael Tyler, David Lee Csicsko
"The Colours of Us" by Karen Katz
"Who's in a Family?" by Robert Skutch
"Whoever You Are" by Mem Fox
3. Creating our Self Portraits out of clay: Creating a self portrait was one way we felt our students could be invited to celebrate their identity. It was truly a remarkable experience watching them pay such close attention to the details on their face when drawing their sketches and when crafting their design out of clay!
4. Our families on the map: To celebrate the diversity within our classroom, one activity that drew in a lot of excitement was creating "Country Cards" and plotting ourselves on our world map in our classroom! It was so wonderful to see how multicultural our classroom is and how many unique backgrounds create the community within the walls of our learning space! Our students continue to look up and observe each other's family identities and talk about what they see!
5. Holiday "Think Work": Over the Holiday Break, we invited our families to share with us some of their cultural traditions! Families could create a "Country Collage" out of pictures that represent their country and/or share a recipe of a favourite cultural dish! We were beyond thrilled with the responses from our students and their families! It was also great to see our families experimenting with technology and creating their collages on PicCollage! Our plan is to create a "Class Recipe Book" including all of those shared with us as part of this Think Work activity!
6. Our Collaborative "Who is Nobody?" Project: Read more about this incredible project by clicking on the link:
7. Designing Flags: After one SK's response to her "Question of the Day" book based on the question: "If you could design your own flag, what would it look like and why?" - our students jumped at the chance of celebrating their identity by creating a flag of their very own! With the incorporation of water colours, here are their masterpieces:
Artists: D.K., C.S., G.V., E.Z.
Artists: G.B., J.H., J.S. (boy), J.S. (girl)
Artists: J.L. (boy), J.L. (girl), L.M., M.P.
Artists: M.D., P.B., R.K., R.T.
Artists: R.V., S.R., T.B., T.P.
Artists: T.D., V.D., Z.P
The above is just a snapshot into our "Identity" and "Map Inquiry"! We hope it helps to paint a picture around what has been going on inside our classroom these past few months! We truly can't wait to see where the journey takes us so stay tuned!
