This has to be one of my favourite inquiries! From the perspective of the educator we can learn so much about each child. What makes them happy, what makes them feel calm, and what strategies we can put in place together to create an environment where each child feels welcome, valued and cared for, intern a culture of wellbeing and caring. When we gather this type of information about a child (from both parents and children), we inform and better our own practice going forward and better ourselves as professionals working with young children. Some might say this type of inquiry also speaks to the idea of differentiated learning and instruction-valuing each child’s unique learning style.
We began this inquiry by sharing a video (provocation) with the children;
The “Happy Place” inquiry stemmed from a conversation we had with children about feelings. We asked each child “can you tell us how your body feels when you feel sad, happy, excited and angry” etc. We then read the story “My Many Colored Days” and we then asked the children to choose a color that best represented how they were feeling as they went to play. Over the next few days as we observed the children at play, we asked each child where their “happy place” might be in the classroom. The children were asked to think about what they like to do, and what makes them happy, and feel calm. They each choose a space or an activity in the room and we documented through pictures and script. The kids co constructed the documentation board by finger painting a splat of their color and helping to tape pictures on. (Note: we began the conversation of “calm” by showing the video “Just Breath”)
Journey Together FDK 