Inquiry inquiry inquiry

It's been busy in Early Years 2 since our last post. The children have been embracing the language of inquiry as thinkers and doers.

Reflection for learning

We continued our inquiry into our interests - transportation and imagination. Each child was given the opportunity to reflect on their experience about making and playing with the boat.

(Hat images ©Pearl Holmes http://beconwiz.com )

To guide the conversations, we used a four of the six D'Bono's thinking hats:

Yellow (positive) - What did you like about the experience?

Red (feelings) - How did you feel about it?

Black/purple (negative) - Was there anything you did not like or found difficult?

Green (creative) - Is there anything you would change? And if yes how?

Here is an old (2008), but informative video about DeBono's hats.

The children selected a smiley face to colour based on how they felt they participated in the project. 

Here are a few examples of their feedback:

Imagination - Not-A-Box

Our ideas around the topic of imagination continued as we were able to review the work we did connecting to the story Not a Box, by Antoinette Portis. After reading the story, the children were challenged to use their imagination and illustrate their thinking. Please feel free to view their work hanging in the classroom. 

Following on from that experience, we learned that our Grade 2 friends had also been learning about imagination using the same story. Grade 2 invited us to visit and view their work. We called this 'our first in-school field trip.' 

Some of the children show themselves as great inquirers as they asked questions about the work they viewed. Later in class we reflected on what we had seen and how the Grade 2 3D Not-A-Box models differed from our imagination drawings. 

Imagination continued...

As we continued our learning journey, we periodically brought the children's attention back to the inquiry cycle. To help them dig deeper (going further) into using their imagination they were challenged to complete the phrase:

If I could be anyone I wanted to be or do anything I could I would...

We have astronauts, princesses, police officers, doctors, teachers, pilots, builders and... Elsa's.

The teachers scribed each child's idea as they made their thinking visible using paint and at least one additional media. Their final work can be view in the classroom very soon.

Of course - parallel to illustrating imaginative ways of being, the children were keen to engage with friends from Ms. Karyn's class in dramatic play experiences and dress-up to bring their ideas to life.

Transportation

During the later part of the week, our attention was directed to inquiring into transportation. However, while doing so, the teachers focused on the students ability to work together - as a whole class, group, or pairs.

As a guide, we used the 'think-puzzle-explore' routine. 

To begin the children organised themselves into groups using the feelings cards. Children with the same feeling sat together and brainstormed everything they thought they knew about transportation. Their ideas were documented on a poster. 

Later they were presented with a variety of images relating to transportation or a transportation system. Armed with sticky notes and pencils, the teachers took notes of the children's conversations and possible questions that arose spontaneously. Some children select pictures they felt a connection to or saw something they wondered about. 

The room filled with voices such as:

• "is it on the water or on the land?", "is this a broken boat?" (Ken)
• "I like it it like the same, it needs four!" (Valerie, while looking at a picture of a car and one of car tires).
• "I see a motor!"  (Chinsiv)
• "Oh! a bicycle has big wheels and a motorbike has small ones." (Ivy)
• "I like this hot air balloon because I want to fly with a balloon one day." (Bella)

Our 'Who we are' unit of inquiry exploring our interests will continue throughout the school year alongside the remaining three units.

Developing skills and understanding the attitudes and attributes of the learner profile

Every day the children are offered opportunities to play in ways to support their development in fine motor, language, social, and number skills. 

Furthermore, we have been exploring print in our immediate environment, an inquiry that will continue for a longer period of time. We started by looking for print we could find in the classroom. 

Later this week we plan to look for print on campus. In preparation for this the children were asked to think about choices. What choices should we make on our wonder walk to make it successful? What choices would make it difficult to do a wonder walk carefully?

One important aspect to consider as we explore visible and oral language (print), is to acknowledge the language we share in our homes. What does print look like and sound like in your mother tongue? In the literacies blog post from September 25th, we requested your assistance to support this inquiry. 

Here an excerpt for your convenience:

'We would appreciate your support with our inquiry into the alphabet - its sounds and symbols. 

Therefore, we are encouraging the students to bring copies of alphabets or other print code systems to share and discuss in class. The objective is to access the students prior knowledge about print. Also to observe how print is used in different contexts and languages.'

Attitudes and attributes of the IBPYP earner profile

Alongside these learning engagements, we have been working on increasing the children's awareness and understanding of the learner profile (LP). The children happily contribute to creating the poster for our display.

The children all know about the LP wall in the classroom and are excited about sticking on their well-earned LP tickets. Each time a child is observed displaying an attribute or attitude of the LP, he/she is given a ticket on which the teacher will write a brief note on what was observed. The tickets are written from the student's perspective in the 'I' form. For example, "I was a risk taker, because even though I am shy I talked about my interest during 'show and tell', or I was an inquirer and thinker when I was able to think of a good, different question to ask my friend about their interest." Attitudes are also acknowledged, such as when a child shows empathy towards a friend or a new level of confidence. It has been great to see that the children are beginning to understand what to look for and acknowledge what they see themselves.

Our First 'Mystery Reader'

We were delighted to have our first Mystery Reader visit us on the last Friday of the term. Thank you, Sophie! The story of Baby Gaston was very amusing :) and Silouan did a great job helping to paraphrase the French story.

Please consider being a Mystery Reader for the class. All the detail is in the letter from the last post here. However, to simplify the sign up I have created a google doc for your convenience. Please add your name and your child's name next to a date most convenient for you. Please be reminded not to tell your child that you are coming and send your clues in a few days before.

Have a wonderful week

Notices:

Please note, this information is NOT in the October calendar on the blog so please mark your personal calendars.

School Photos October 20 & 22

During the first week back after the break, all students will have their photos taken.

Tuesday 20 October will be individual photos

Thursday 22 October will be group photos