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Inquiry driven learning can begin anywhere and at anytime. This particular learning experience began with a lovely lady named Dolores. Dolores has offered so much guidance, support, and interest to our program and and we are forever grateful. Dolores presented us with a box of honey combs and bee hives…or so it appeared. Her instructions were simple, “Please give this to the children and allow them to try and figure out what exactly it is.”.

So we did just that. We put the box on our interest table with magnifying glasses, paper, pencils, crayons, and various informational texts and allowed the children to examine and explore.

Predictions could be heard immediately;
Little Mr. K: “It’s a bee hive!!”
Little Miss. V: “Bees live in here, look I see a bee!!”
Little Miss. I: “I think it’s made with honey..look!” (as she points to what appears to be a sticky kind of glue holding the plates in place)

After using books and online information to research, and understand what we had been given, we agreed that we had been given a Paper Wasp nest.

The very next week we had a trip planned to “Spring Ridge Farm” that amazingly tied in so nicely. As we toured the farm our interest in bees was furthered as we entered into a cabin that would teach us all about bees!!

We learned so much about the roles of the various bees within a colony, to how they make honey and wax, and what bees do for our earth.

A big thank you to our FDK team next door for arranging this fabulous trip!!

The following week the children created their own bee hive and bee colony in our Dramatic Center. This play experience was so much fun and so rich with learning. The children created their own costumes, while educators extended and merged play with learning by asking children to create their own shape patterns on their wings. Each child was encouraged to label their costumes to let everyone know what type of bee they were.

For more information on our Inquiry into Bees and Inquiry in general, please visit our website and go to the Inquiry section
http://www.journeytogetherfdk.com

Capturing the process is more valuable than capturing the product.

When presented with a product such as the picture above, it can be difficult to see the learning that has occurred. Most adults are quick to respond by saying “oh how nice!”, “tell me about your picture”, “love the colors” but are making the assumption that not a lot of learning has taken place. The picture is cast aside and forgotten… have a look below at the pictures that capture the process of creating this masterpiece!!

Little Miss. K calls out “Look at the eyes, look at the eyes…yellow, yellow, yellow!!”

Little Miss. K: “The nose is red!!!” She moves the brush around and around, feeling the brush against the paper experiencing the circular motion as she becomes the artist.

She adds the mouth and begins to create hair, a representation of a face evolves… she squeals “look!!!”

Little Miss K. could have presented this figure as a finished product….but she does not stop there, there is more learning to be had! She then accidentally moves the red hair into the yellow eyes!!

Little Miss K.: “Orange!! Look teacher, red and yellow make ORANGE!!!”

With an abundance of paint on her brush, she begins to experiment with an arc motion over the eye. She moves the brush repetitively back and forth, back and forth lost in the movement. Again, she is connecting with the artist within as she now creates, “A rainbow!!”.

Before long the entire paper is an orangey red and yellow masterpiece. An ecstatic Little Miss K. leaps into the air and shouts, “Red and yellow make ORANGE!!”.

An artist is born!

Looking at the process we can celebrate the learning that has taken place. Little Miss K. has experienced the joy of scientific and creative discovery. She has learned that two primary colours can make a secondary colour. She has lost herself in the sensory experience of painting and her body is remembering the movements of an artist. She has experienced the sheer joy of paint.

This week the children will help to co create our dramatic center. After reading the story
“Big Bear Hug” written by Nicholas Oldland, and “Brown Bear, Brown Brown, What Do You See?” Written by Bill Martin Jr/Eric Carle the children used the stuffed bears, reptiles, and snakes found within our room as part of their own play last week. So this week we are creating our own forest and hibernation center. Here in the following pictures you can see the children painting our very own forest, and using their senses to explore peices of nature found on our nature walk last week.

As the children continue to explore winter and nature relating to our interest in Aboriginal history, an inquiry into snow and ice mixed with our senses could be found in on our light table this week.

The children will be provided throughout the week with primary colors in a clear container. Throughout each day, the children will observe, record and predict what might happen to the ice. Educators prompt this learning and discovery through inquiry questions such as, “What might happen to the ice cubes?” “What color do you think we will discover when the red and yellow ice cubes melt?”

After a wonderful holiday season, we were a bit unsure the lead was strong enough to carry enough interest to continue. To our delight, the children’s interest in exploring aboriginal history and culture continues. Through reflection and conversation, we realized an avenue to achieve a real understanding of this time period and culture for the children would be through role play. We also realized that the dramatic center had not been yet been as successful as we liked this year (at our new school), as it had been in the past. Due to the structural layout of the classroom, and our original center layout, our dramatic area was not well-defined. We wondered if this was the contributing factor to a lack of interest and focus in role play. We decided to take on the task of moving the heavy furniture and re designing our classroom. What worked? what did not? what might work?
The children returned the next day excited about the changes!! The children helped to add materials to create their play environment. For example, as we furthered our knowledge of nature and its importance to a native culture, the children decided to help move our sensory bin (sand and potted herbs) into the dramatic center. After a nature walk, the children added evergreen branches and…..lots, and lots of pinecones!!! As we have spent 3 days now observing the children playing, manipulating and exploring the classroom and resources, this was the change we needed to spark dramatic play!
We found that by moving our writing center and word/name wall closer to the windows provided additonal natural light, and became a lure for more interaction and creativity there as well.
Please take a look at the play experiences and materials we have provided this week for the children as they explore this lead further.

Exploring the role of Aboriginal hunter

This lead began just a few days ago, while the children were playing with the “Crazy Fort” construction toy. We set the materials out with the intent of capitalizing on the children’s interest in building a helicopter (furthering our Weather and News play lead), however the helicopter lasted 20 minutes!!! (Slightly deflated – we had been excited to see this take off) Instead, the children began constructing bow and arrows and hunting small animals around the classroom. This type of play could have been discouraged, but we decided to let it go and instead build on their understanding and further their knowledge of how to use bow and arrows safely, as well as who would use bows and arrows and why they use them. This has begun an exciting adventure into Aboriginal people and their way of life. We have put out various stories and informational texts, instruments, building materials such as stones, sticks, fabric, feathers and the “Crazy Forts”. We are watching the children build their very own teepees and other shelters. We can’t wait to see where this interest takes us.
With Christmas approaching, we read the story of the “Huron Carol” and watched different renditions on our Smartboard. We have our multicultural day coming up at our school, so this has created conversation about what cultures the children in our class come from.

We will continue to blog and share as this experience unfolds and we hope you will share all the exciting fun and learning happening in your classrooms!!!

Welcome to a blog  set up for educators, parents, and others who want to share their  excitement and experiences  as they embark on their journey through Full Day Kindergarten!

FDK calls for a new approach to educating our youngest learners and can be an exciting adventure that calls for new strategies, new sharing, new team and new growth for all.  It is our hope that together we can share our successes and  challenges, and with the right support and the good intentions of all that the future of FDK can be  creative, fun and  successful in the years to come.