Saturday 9 March 2013

Just beginning

I have done a lot of reading of blog posts over the past few weeks and am completely inspired to change my kindergarten program to an inquiry based environment. Engaging students in their own learning will be exciting to watch and foster over the remaining school months.
We have two focus points that have come to light over the last week or so. During one of our morning sign ins we realized that many of the children have never had a pet - therefore I am in search of a fish to bring into the classroom following March Break. This will hopefully inspire learning about animal life cycles, how to care for living things around us, and encourage different artist pieces and stories. 
Another area of interest is dinosaurs. The students already know several names and types of dinosaurs -so we are going to build upon their schema and see how fossils are created and where the dinosaurs lived and possibly the environmental changes that led to their extinction. 
I will keep you posted as to how the inquiries come along. We are also striving to continue our photo documentation of all learning. 

3 comments:

  1. In particular I would like to thank Joanne Marie Babalis at Transforming our Learning Environment into a Space of Possibilities, and Jocelyn Schmidt at Our Kindergarten Journey for their blog site inspirations!

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    1. Wow! I feel honoured! Thank you so much for the mention and I'm so excited to see you take the leap into the blogsphere!

      As for your transition into an inquiry-based learning environment for you and your students, it sounds like you're off to a great start! Dinosaurs and fish sound great and I can't wait to see where it takes you and your class! I actually had 2 frogs last year (from Scholar's Choice) and it was a wonderful gateway into a whole life cycle inquiry and it certainly lends itself to many aspects of the curriculum!

      Good luck and happy learning!
      Sincerely,
      Jocelyn

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  2. Welcome to the blogsphere!

    We are so happy that you've joined us!!

    I love the colours that you chose for your blog. They are so calming...

    In addition to this, I love your title!!!

    Looking forward to following your journey,

    Joanne Babalis
    www.myclassroomtransformation.blogspot.com

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