In this blog you will see a journey being taken by students and teacher to build up our minds, muscles and imaginations together through inquiry, exploration, investigation, problem solving and teamwork!

Spark questions and wonders with these kindergarten inquiry ideas by setting up provocations for your students to explore.

Project/Inquiry Based Learning has been a passion of mine ever since I discovered it about 5 years ago. Since then, I have stepped out of my comfort zone and transformed the way I teach from a typical Thematic Based style through baby steps taken each year and with the help of an amazing on-line community of teachers with the same passion (you all know who you are!). My first baby step was taking themes and science/social studies standards and making them more student lead and project based. I got rid of the two week time limit each theme had in the past and allowed more time for students to dig deeper. I found that students would take my broad theme (oceans) and desire to dig deeper into more specific parts of the theme (sharks, jellyfish, ect.). As time went on, I was able to take the biggest step and totally let go of my themes and allowed the children's interests drive my instruction, incorporating the standards through those interests. I am blessed enough to also teach in a district that does not mandate the curriculum I use. Curriculum programs are purchased to use as tools for our toolbox but not required. Us teachers are trusted and encouraged by our superintendent to write our own curriculum as long as the standards are met. My building principle also has that kind of faith in us as professionals! They know that when it comes to children learning what they need to learn, we are the experts! Project/Inquiry Based Learning is highly encouraged in all grades Pre-K through 12. Some wonder how I plan for this style of teaching and how it flows. Here are some of the tools that I use. Once I notice an interest from the students (usually found out through experiences set up for them to explore during play) , I find out what their knowledge and misconceptions are about the subject. Kind of like a KWL chart! I list all that they know about the subject we will dive into. Then I ask what they wonder. I list all of their questions. NOW I can plan! I take their wonderings and create a web map showing the different directions they want to take the inquiry and possible experiences that will help them find answers to their wonderings. I got this web map from the amazing Joanne Babalis and her amazing blog http://myclassroomtransformation.blogspot.com. On the back I have all of the Literacy and Math Standards listed so that I can highlight the ones we will focus on through the inquiry and project. I add any Science and Social Studies Standards to the bottom of the web map. Here is the link to the web map if you would like it: Web Organizer Here is the link to the Common Core Standards Sheet for Kindergarten Language and Math: Kindergarten CC Standards Once I organize my thoughts, I create my inquiry plan using a template I created based on one I found from a Texas school district. It was so long ago I have no memory of which district but if I find out I will add them to give them credit. Their form was 3 pages long. I tweaked it to fit it all on one page. I use this to show the objectives and vocabulary, plan the investigations and materials I will need, show how they will organize the data about what they have learned, possible projects that could result from the inquiry and how we will present the project to the community. Here is the link to this inquiry planner if you would like to download it: Inquiry/Project Planner The next step is to start the investigation phase. In early childhood I set out experiences for them to explore and document what they notice. We also do whole group and small group investigations through books, videos and hands-on experiences. As we answer questions, we add the answers to our wonder chart to show our new learning. We organize this data in a web map format for all to see. The start of an inquiry wall. Information is added to it as we learn. Once we have investigated we use organizational maps to show what we learn. In kindergarten it usually consists of web maps, circle maps, tree charts (can/have/are maps), and brace maps (to show part to whole). We will chose one or two to organize our data. The next step is the project. We take what we learn and create something to show it! The projects can be individual, small group, or whole group. Some examples of projects in our room have been turning an area of our room into an ocean, forest and sky to show how animals adapt in the winter. The kids signed up to be on the migration team, adaption team or hibernation team. They each became experts on their part during the investigation and worked on their part of the project. A cave, forest, sky and ocean were created to show what animals do in the winter. Animals were created, labeled and added to the habitats. A group interested in map making and migration created this map showing migration patterns of monarchs, geese and grey whales. Another project was our The Sound Exploration Area created for our school. They saw a need (an area to explore sound) investigated different ways of creating sound, organized the data and designed a Sound Exploration Area! An area for everyone in our school to explore sound which is in our science standards. They have also turned the inside of our room into a great hall and medeival kitchen and the outside of our room into a castle wall complete with moat and drawbridge after investigating castles! The outside of our castle. A map created by a group interested in maps and where different castles were found in the world. A big book created by a small group about who lived in castles. A small group project during our castle inquiry. They have created murals and big books to show their learning also. A mural planned and created by Kindergartners. The last step is the presentation to show what they had learned. The kids LOVE this part and I've never had a child refuse to present! They are so confident of what they have learned and proud of what they have done that they cannot wait to share it! I am always so impress with their speaking and listening skills during these presentations! Sometimes small groups go to other classrooms and present what they learned, sometimes we invite parents or other classes to our room to see our presentation, and sometimes we create a video to share with others. They create maps, big books, and, get to show off the projects created at this time! Showing what they have learned through these projects gives the projects an even bigger sense of purpose! They can't wait to show others what they have learned and done! Presenting different weapons used during medieval times. I have never had so much fun teaching in my 22 years as I have he past four years! I could never go back to the way I had done it I the past. The benefits of this way of teaching are not only meeting the standards (the old way did that too) but the 21st Century Skills they are forced to develope when they learn in this type of environment. When inquiring, investigating and creating within thier own interest, they are motivated to collaborate, problem solve, handle frustration, persist if things don't work the first time, and learn from their mistakes. They have to use critical thinking skills and develope research skills. When kids develop these skills, they can learn ANYTHING! My new passion that I am learning to incorporate in my classroom is Playbased Learning! I have been amazed by the learning taking place in this way also....but that's another post! SaveSave

Hi friends! Today I want to share with you our dinosaur inquiry from the past few months! We originally had some dinosaur wonders on our February wonder chart, so we went back to those questions and I also invited students share more questions they had about dinosaurs. Here is what they came up with initially: Why did the dinosaurs go extinct? How did dinosaurs go extinct? Is it true that the dinosaurs died because it go too cold? Back then, were the dinosaurs real or was it just a story? What do dinosaurs eat? Where did dinosaurs live? Did dinosaurs live in caves? Why do dinosaurs have tails? Why did dinosaurs run? What did dinosaurs sound like? Why did dinosaurs make loud noises? They weren't brainstormed in that order, but I grouped them like that so we could look at questions that were similar consecutively. For our lessons, we first started by reading the book "What are dinosaurs?" by Bobbie Kalman. In this book we learned that dinosaurs were real but lived long ago and that no dinosaurs are alive today. After we learned this information, I had the girl who originally asked the question "Back then, were the dinosaurs real or was it just a story?" come to the teacher table during centre time and record the sentence "Dinosaurs were real but they lived long ago. There are no dinosaurs alive today." It's hard to see but it's the writing at the bottom left corner on the bulletin board! Here are two centres I put out early on in our dinosaur inquiry. First, I bought this egg at Dollarama and posed the question "What do you think will hatch out of the egg?" and had students observe and write their predictions. They loved looking for changes, especially after seeing a few cracks develop! After it hatched (it was a triceratops inside) we talked about how all dinosaurs hatch from eggs. Another centre we set out early on was this dinosaur provocation. This centre lets the students freely explore different dinosaur items and also record their observations and questions about dinosaurs. I bought the dinosaurs from Michaels. You can get the tracing/matching cards you see in the picture for FREE by clicking here on the image below: The next day, we continued to read the book "What are dinosaurs?" by Bobbie Kalman learned that dinosaurs eat plants and meat. We learned the words carnivore and herbivore. After the lesson we prepped for our next lesson by making the titles "What do dinosaurs eat?", "plants" and "meat". Then I made 2 eggs and printed the herbivore and carnivore signs. I also printed the herbivore and carnivores that were in "What are dinosaurs?" and "First Facts: Dinosaurs" by DK Publishing (that I planned to read the next day). The next day, we put the chart pieces up on the whiteboard and read the pages about what dinosaurs eat in "First Facts: Dinosaurs" by DK Publishing. As we read the book, we sorted the dinosaur cards on to the correct egg. We also went back to the "What are dinosaurs?" book and re-read the pages that had information on herbivores and carnivores ands sorted the corresponding dinosaurs on those pages as well on to the egg. Here is the finished chart: (this activity and the map activity below was inspired by @playexplorelearn on Instagram!) The next morning, I set out this invitation to sort dinosaurs based on what they eat. I left out the two books we read to make our chart the previous day as a resource and our completed chart was also on the bulletin board for them to reference! Next, we looked at the question "Why and how did dinosaurs go extinct?" First, we watched the video "Where did the dinosaurs go?" by Pink Fong on YouTube. We watched the video twice and then the students recalled the steps to me about how the dinosaurs went extinct. I wrote each step on a different whiteboard. Then at centre time, students volunteered to record the steps and draw a corresponding picture (if they wanted to) so that we could display the steps on our bulletin board. Next we explored the question "Where did dinosaurs live?" We read pages from "Dino Encyclopedia" (I can't remember the author, sorry!) and "You Can Be a Palentologist!" by Scott D. Sampson to learn that dinosaurs only lived on land (those other creatures that flew or lived in the water were flying reptiles or ocean reptiles that lived at the same time as dinosaurs! Who knew!) but they lived on every continent. I drew up a big map on poster paper and told them that we will be painting it together and then adding dinosaur stickers to show our new learning. First, students were invited to show their new learning about the world map by painting one. If they were able to paint the map correctly (green for land, blue for ocean) then they were invited to come and paint on the large collaborative map. We projected a large world map on the projector so that students could use that as a reference when painting. Here is some of my girls adding to our collaborative map! After we painted the map, we also made labels for the continents, the title and the writing piece to show our new learning. The next day, we glued the continent labels as a class and also added the dinosaur stickers whole group. And here is the completed map and corresponding title/writing: I got the stickers we used for the collaborative map at Michaels. The next day, I also let the students add mini dinosaur stickers to their original maps! I bought the mini stickers at Walmart. I started with a limit of 10 but I realized not everyone made a map so increased the limit to 15. These tiny stickers are great for fine motor development! Here is a sample of a finished map! I had some requests to share the printable for this activity so you can click here or on the image below to download it for free! Next we investigated the question "What did dinosaurs sounds like?" We watched these two videos: and we learned that scientists think dinosaurs did not roar like they do in movies like Jurassic Park. Instead they think they made a hissing noise. Then the girl who originally asked the question came to the teacher table at centre time and wrote her new learning to display on our bulletin board. It's hard to see but it's the top right writing piece in the picture below: Another centre I put out was this story making centre! Students were invited to make a dinosaur story with play dough and loose parts and use ChatterPix to record it. They LOVED this activity! On the last day, I wrote some of the remaining questions on chart paper (Did dinosaurs live in caves? Why do dinosaurs have tails? Why do dinosaurs run?) and we used google and our own inferencing to come up with the answers. I don't have a picture of this... sorry! To consolidate our learning, we also made these non-fiction dinosaur books! This was a great guided group for my higher writers. First we made our cover page and talked about titles, authors and illustrators. Then we learned about table of contents and how it helps us find information in a non-fiction book. We wrote our learning on each page, added a title and went back and added each new topic to our table of contents. It took about a week to complete but it was worth the time! Next time I think I'll start with less pages in the book though, especially for our first book! Here are some other books in case you are interested in looking! They used our bulletin boards as a reference when thinking of facts to include in their books which made our bulletin board more interactive than usual which I loved! If you are looking for these non-fiction book making printables, you can find them in my "Inquiry Writing Templates for Kindergarten" pack on TPT. You can click here or on the image below to see what else is included! Here is the finished bulletin board again: We had some amazing questions come up during our dinosaur inquiry (see below). We recorded them but the kids were losing steam with this inquiry and our caterpillars arrived so we switched gears without exploring these questions. I just wanted to share that because it's ok to not explore every question! Don't beat yourself up if you can't find the time! We can only do what we have time for :) That's it for our dinosaur inquiry! I hope this post gave you some ideas if your students have similar wonderings or are interested in dinosaurs too! - Yukari

Since the middle of February while were creating our dragon project, I started to notice something. The kids were taking the logs out of ou...

If you are getting started with inquiry, you may wonder where to start and how to prepare for something that is student-led. Although using an inquiry

What is Inquiry Based Leaning in Kindergarten? In simple form, inquiry-based learning is more of a student-directed way of learning rather than teacher-directed. In some cases, the teaching team may set the general framework for learning, but for the most part, the learning is based on the students questions, ideas and passions. This is similar to the emergent curriculum if that is a term you are more familiar with. Rather than working off set lesson plans that are theme-based and not necessarily developmentally appropriate for all children, your teaching is guided by the students interests thus making the learning more meaningful to them. We know from research that children achieve optimal learning when they are given plenty of opportunities to become fully engaged in their play. Most often while children are engaged, their natural curiosity of the world around them comes forth. They take notice of everything and have a beautiful sense of wonder about people, places, objects, and nature. Through noticing and wondering, the children come up with questions and observations about their thinking. It is important that children are given the opportunity to investigate their inquiry, gather information, make observations and share their findings with others. It is the role of the teaching team in kindergarten to act as facilitators. We use these opportunities of inquiry to help guide the children with more open-ended questions allowing them to extend and clarify their thinking and make connections, while modeling the inquiry process. We provide the children with the tools, materials and resources they need to investigate these inquiries. What is the Inquiry Process? The Full Day Early Learning Kindergarten Program clearly defines the inquiry process in the curriculum document and I have included the table for you below: There is also an article I enjoyed named "The Plan: Building on Children's Interests" by Hilary Jo Seitz through NAEYC, that you can read here, that offers a very interesting perspective on the inquiry process. It has many similarities to the one in the Full Day Kindergarten document, but I enjoyed the way Hilary explained her four step process. I also now love the term SPARKS which refers to anything that promotes deeper thinking. Open-Ended Questions to Promote Inquiry The key to open-ended questions is that they promote further thinking and explanation. Questions that begin with "what, why, how, if etc." are usually open-ended questions. Anything that can be answered with yes or no are typically closed-ended questions and a lot of the time may begin with "can, do etc." I created the sheet above to carry with me on my clipboard when I am doing observations during the day as a reminder or suggestion. Very quickly these just became natural for me and it is just part of my normal conversations throughout the day with the children. This certainly won't be my last post on inquiry, but I hope this answers some questions for those who were wondering just what inquiry-based learning is. 

The Ultimate List of Inquiry-Based Learning Questions Hey, y'all! Let me start by saying this post is a work in progress. My goal is compile as many inquiry-based learning and phenomenon-based learning questions as I can. But my mind never stops thinking. So as new questions are posed, I will be adding them here. So don't be afraid to revisit this post later. So, let's jump in. General Inquiry and Social Skills What is inquiry? What is curiosity? How can we use curiosity to find things out? What is happiness? What is gratitude? Why is it important to show gratitude? What is kindness? How can I show kindness? Why is it important to be kind? What does it mean to be a "good student"? Why is it important to be a good student? What is generosity? How can I be generous to the people I care about? How powerful are our words? What does it mean to be humble? What are character traits of successful people? What is success? What is success for me? What would a successful life look like for me? What is mindfulness? How can mindfulness help me focus/be calm? What is inclusion/inclusivity? Why is it important to be inclusive? What is equity? Reading/Language Arts What are the important parts of fiction books? What are the important parts of nonfiction books? What similarities and differences do they have? Why? How do illustrations give meaning and move stories along? How do wordless books tell stories? How does learning different meanings of word parts help me become a better reader? What does good writing look like? What makes "good" writing? Science How does weather affect humans, plants, and animals? How can people predict and prepare for different weather conditions? How do people and animals use plants in their daily lives? How do plant life cycles differ from each other? How is climate change affecting the oceans? How are humans dependent on the oceans? What changes are occurring to our climate? What is causing these changes? Can the changes be prevented/reversed? How? Why do we have seasons? What makes different seasons unique? What makes fall/winter/spring unique? Why is fall/winter/spring important? How are some life cycles similar? How are some life cycles unique? What is conservation of the Earth? Why is conservation important? What makes each forest (or our forest) unique? Why are forests important? (Or why is our forest important?) What makes our lake unique? Why is the lake important? What is energy? Why is water important? What are some ways we use water? How does aerodynamics work? How does pollution affect plants, animals, and people? How can be decrease or eliminate our carbon footprint? What are the benefits/drawbacks of electric vehicles? How are buildings constructed centuries ago still standing? (engineering and design) Why and how are insects important? How are ______ and _______ interdependent? How are auroras formed? What significance do auroras have--in culture, literature, science, etc.? Social Studies/History What makes a community great? How are communities the same or different from each other? What makes different winter holidays unique? (thinking customs and traditions) What are some similarities between different winter holidays? (thinking customs and traditions) Who else celebrates Thanksgiving besides our country? How are these (Thanksgiving) celebrations the same and different from ours? How do other cultures and countries celebrate the new year? How are these celebrations the same and different from ours? What is advocacy? What are up-standers? Why do we have money? Why is money important? Is money important? Math Where can we find patterns? (multi-disciplinary) How does recognizing patterns help us make predictions? (multi-disciplinary) Other topics/Seasonal things What makes pumpkins unique? (primary grades) What makes apples unique? (primary grades) What do school lunches look like in other countries? How can we improve the lunches in our country/community? As you can see, there are a TON of questions you can pose to your students to being the inquiry or phenomenon-based learning process. This list is not all inclusive but is a work in progress. I hope this helped you get some new ideas for your next unit. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week. I'll talk to you soon. Stay cozy,

You might be surprised to see a post about pumpkins in June! Yet this project began way back in October when I brought in pumpkins and gourds for a math lesson and for the children to explore at the science center. By November, the children noticed that the gourds were starting to change color, […]

Are you having trouble finalizing your schedule? Too many things to cram in to every day? I hear you! Every year this is probably one of the hardest things for me to figure out, so I want to share how I fit everything I need to teach into every day. Here is a peek at what my weekly schedule looked like my last year in the classroom: Now let me break that down for you just a little bit... AM Routines/WTW Sort The first thing my kiddos do every day is pretty typical. They hang up their things, bring in their folder, hand in any notes/homework, pick their lunch and have a seat. After that I used to have morning work printables at their tables to work on but then we started using Words Their Way and I had to figure out how to fit this program into our day. My students get a new sort every Monday during our literacy block so Mondays are the only morning that they have a typical worksheet for morning work. Every other day they work on their word sort. (Tuesday: Cut & Sort, Wednesday: Sort again, Thursday: Sort & Write, Friday: Sort & Glue in journals) If they finish early they read books quietly. Intervention Then we have a school wide intervention time. This is the time that we really get to focus on our RTI students. Because this intervention time is school wide, our specialists, educational assisstants, SLPs etc are all able to help. This makes it possible for the students with the highest level of need to be in smaller groups, while students not in need of intervention are able to work with specialists in larger groups on enrichment activities. Writing Workshop We follow Lucy Calkins Units of Study for Writing so this one is pretty set each day. I do use individual goal setting with my students as well. You can read more about that here. Math Everyday we start our math block with this awesome calendar journal from Growing Kinders. Then we complete a daily math journal from my math journal pack here: Then my students work in small group with me, or on one of our math centers. Daily 5 I use the Daily 5 model for our literacy block and I have to say it is one my favorite times of the day. My students are always nice and calm during Daily 5 which is why I moved literacy to the afternoons. Math centers always got so crazy when students were all wound up from lunch and recess, so moving them to the morning was also a great decision. Inquiry Our district was moving towards an inquiry based approach to teaching in the content areas which I loved, but still had to put my kindergarten spin on it. I always taught thematically. I enjoyed it, the kids enjoyed it, so I tried to find a way to make that work with the inquiry model. Here are the themes I used. Read Aloud I always end the day with a read aloud. As students pack up their bags and get ready to go, I begin reading. This helps quiet students down so my room doesn't turn into a zoo. It also gives me something purposeful to do for the last few minutes while students are being picked up for buses, or after school programs. I try to pick a chapter book that relates to the season or themes we are learning about. I choose frog and toad at the beginning of the year so that students get used to the routine with shorter chapters that often have a few pictures to share. Later in the year I read Charlotte's web, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc. Hopefully this was helpful to you in some way. I know I am always curious to see how other teachers structure their day, and usually get ideas for tweaking my own schedule as well. Happy planning friends!

This post is part 1 in my inquiry series. To learn more about inquiry click through to see my many other posts about inquiry. If you are new to my blog,

The inquiry-based learning defined with different types and examples.

This past week we have been discussing what belonging to a community means, what communities we belong to (families, class/school, neighbourhoods, sports teams), and the people and places within these communities. We began by discussing the different places we would find in our community and why they are important. Then students had a chance to …

I get multiple emails every day asking for copies of my inquiry planning templates and daily schedules. After clearing all of my emails and trash for the year, I accidentally deleted permanently some emails from people wanting these that I had yet to answer. Since I don't know who they were, I am hoping they will find this page and get the planning pages that they needed and know that I did not ignore them! In this post, I have links to all of my template pdf's in my google drive for you to download. I do all I can to help others on their journey into inquiry based teaching so these are free for you to download. They are not perfect but they have worked for me at different times in my journey as a Reggio Inspired Teacher. You can take the ideas and change them to work for you in your situation and environment, but they will give you a base to work from as you make your own. When planning for Inquiry/Project based learning, it takes a lot of time up front, but then planning is easy for the rest of the inquiry which can last up to a month. Planning an Inquiry always starts with observing the students. Once I notice a large group interest, I find out what they know and wonder. I take that information and start planning. Right now, my favorite planning tool is a simple web map. This web map was created based on the one that the amazing Joanne Babalis created over at http://myclassroomtransformation.blogspot.com. Check her out! She is brilliant! I liked the way she designed it and I can just add more lines where I need them. Sometimes I use this template, but sometimes I just make my own web map with a blank sheet of paper and a pencil. It is a great way to organize my thoughts. You can find this template here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B08gV9mV4K6BMXZ3WnNBdWxzOU0/view?usp=sharing Here is a photo of a handmade one filled out. As I am brainstorming ideas I have the Language Arts and Math Common Core Standards and Science and Social Studies Standards nearby. I made this sheet with all of the language arts and math standards all on one page to make it easy for me. It is amazing how many standards are covered, used, and learned by using the skills authentically during inquiry! I highlight the ones that will be covered. You can download this Common Core list here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B08gV9mV4K6BWURZb2xYRFdoSEE/view?usp=sharing This next inquiry planner is a great way to organize your ideas into the different stages of Inquiry Based Learning and also has an area for project ideas and presentations if you want to go even deeper using Project Based Learning. It literally spells out the process of Inquiry/Project Based Learning. This template was very helpful as I was transitioning from thematic based teaching to Inquiry Based Teaching. You can download the Inquiry planning template above here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B08gV9mV4K6BVkQ4OE5PNWxsbmc/view?usp=sharing Here is one already filled out about our castle inquiry as an example. You can download it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B08gV9mV4K6BUDBfZG9FcUpjQzg/view?usp=sharing After that, I use many different "weekly" planning papers. This one is more fluid and open ended. It can also last for more than one week. I like the way it makes me plan for the environment as a third teacher. Many of the ideas that end up on my map can happen during our play-based learning block. I find that I use this template more the second half of the year. You can download it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B08gV9mV4K6Ba0tTWGFGQ2lsVUk/view?usp=sharing Here is an example filled out with plans here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B08gV9mV4K6BaUZDRG5STnhuR0k/view?usp=sharing At the beginning of the year, I usually use my schedule as my planner. Here are two different years. You can download the one above here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B08gV9mV4K6BNGNWM09fN1MyX28/view?usp=sharing And this one here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B08gV9mV4K6BZE1tNUF3N19fbHc/view?usp=sharing These also show what my schedules look like but I will get more into scheduling in another post. They are far from perfect! I am constantly trying to figure out ways to have less transitions in the schedules and I feel that it is always a work in progress! I will be making some major changes to it next year. I am always looking back and reflecting on the previous year and this past year showed me some changes that I need to make. I will share that when I figure it out at the beginning of the next school year. Also know that my schedules are more fluid than they look on paper. If students are really engaged in some part of the day, I may let them have more time and move another planned lesson to the next day. When I use these, I still need to plan my environment as the third teacher so I made a map of my room using Pages on my iPad. This is great to have for substitute teachers so they know what is going on during the play block! I just fill in the invitations to learn, provocations, challenges, and experiences that will be set up in each area. Hopefully providing these links will help you all be able to get these when you want them, rather than having to wait for me to answer your emails! I hope they help! Darla Myers

We love this pumpkin activity/worksheet! It offers a great way for students to explore making and testing predictions - in a very festive way!! This freebie will have your children exploring various science and math concepts, predicting and determining... How many seeds are in the pumpkin The size of their pumpkin How many lines are on the pumpkin Whether a pumpkin sinks or floats when placed in water A place to record the description of the pumpkin There's even a spot to draw a jack-o-lantern face! As an added bonus, helping you scoop out the 'goop' and separate out the seeds, provides an organic sensory experience that your kiddos are sure to enjoy!

The inquiry-based learning defined with different types and examples.

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You hear it all of the time. What’s inquiry-based learning? What is an inquiry-based lesson? It seems to be all the rage in education...

At my school, we use Kath Murdoch’s Inquiry Cycle. Many of our staff are new the PYP and new to inquiry-based teaching and learning, so we find this inquiry cycle provides some structure to t…

Play Based Learning is an approach to teaching that focuses on children’s natural curiosity and desire to explore their world. It is a way of thinking about education that promotes the importance of play and discovery. In this blog post you'll get some tips on how to start with play based teaching.

Learn what is under your skin with a fun life-size human body project for kids. Download FREE skeletal system bones and organ printables!

The biggest question, when I'm planning an IB PYP unit of inquiry is, at what level is my class in terms of experience and initiative when it comes to inquiry? In other words, which level of student inquiry will I be planning around - structured...

Hey all! I hope that you are enjoying your last few days of summer. I've had some questions lately from both new and veteran teachers alike about year-long pacing of curriculum. How can you make sure

Are you a kindergarten teacher in an NGSS state? Do you understand the kindergarten NGSS standards? 44 states use NGSS standards or NGSS

Using Inquiry-Based Learning and Phenomenon-Based Learning in the Classroom

I love using interactive lapbooks in the classroom. They are fun to create, engaging and can be used throughout the year to review skills taught. I finally completely my Lapbook Bundle and I am happy to share the lapbooks included with you. Whether you think your learners will enjoy creating all of the lapbooks, if you

Inquiry-based learning in preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten classrooms

Inquiry-Based Learning in First Grade and Second Grade

Kids will have fun while learning where do I Live with this printable activity perfect for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students.

I've always struggled with my Animals unit in Science. I pride myself in creating hands-on, engaging lessons--but it's kind of hard to make animals "hands-on." I mean I have a few feathers, a turtle shell and a snake-skin. But my unit was still just a lot of reading books and watching videos. This year, I decided to shake things up a little--by creating a Kindergarten Zoo! Whenever I plan a unit, I start by looking at the standards for that unit and planning my learning objectives. The standards for "Animals" in Texas are fairly simple: (A) sort animals into groups based on physical characteristics such as color, size, or body covering. (B) identify parts of animals such as head, eyes, and limbs. That's it! I don't have to teach about adaptations or habitats or food chains. I don't have to teach kids the difference between reptiles and amphibians. My job is simple. And rather than spinning my wheels trying to teach my kids material that is (possibly) developmentally inappropriate and (possibly) causing them to develop misconceptions, I make darn sure they develop a thorough and sound understanding of the concepts I am responsible for. And I make sure we have...

If you are wanting to teach kids about countries around the world this is a fun, free printable to teach kids about 18 countries - perfect for preschool, kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, and 3rd gr

When sounding it out doesn’t work, curiosity can.

PRIMARY SCIENCE UNIT 2 - MAMMALS The second unit in my primary science series is finally here! We are so excited to learn all about mammals. We had so much fun in Unit 1 - learning all about the human body and our five senses , and now we are moving on to our next science unit. My stud

Looking for a cool magnet activity for kids? Try these magnetic marble mazes. This printable marble game uses magnets to make it educational and fun!

Do you want to get started with project based learning, but you’re not sure how? Maybe project based learning sounds too complicated, in-depth, and overwhelming to you? That’s how I felt when I first delved into PBL. But now I know there is nothing to be afraid of! In this post, I will give a quick explanation of project-based learning and then give you some tips and ideas to begin to implement it in your own classroom. What is Project Based Learning? Project based learning, simply stated, is an authentic learning experience

Today I thought I’d share a strategy I use to help my students communicate their thinking during the inquiry process. See, Think, Wonder is a thinking routine I use with my students to help t…

So, I've been busy getting my beginning of the year science units together. I start the year off in science the same way I start everything else off--by teaching routines and expectations! We start science on the very first day of school! Day 1: What is Science? I ask the kids what they think "science" is and I record their answers on a chart paper. Be prepared for some pretty funny answers! Then I read What is Science by Rebecca Kai Dotlich. I love this book--it is colorful and fun and really gets kids thinking about science and the world in general! Then, with their minds buzzing with possiblities, we add more ideas to our list. Then I introduce our science notebooks. I tell the kids that these are very special notebooks that will help us ask questions about science; make predictions; record observations and data about investigations; and explain their thinking about what they have learned. I hand out the Science Notebook Expectations and we go over them one by one. Then I show the kids how to glue the expectations in their notebooks--focusing on how to turn one page at a time and how to use glue appropriately...

I get multiple emails every day asking for copies of my inquiry planning templates and daily schedules. After clearing all of my emails an...

Hi all - so I have a student teacher...and she is amazing!! As a result I have time...so I have been making the most of my time. First, I did my Long Range Plans: Comments? What do you think? I was planning to include the Core Competencies when I wrote lesson plans. Also - I would just print what they provided on the BC Curriculum website in PDF format as the first page. These two pages would follow for Social Studies. Next, I did an Inquiry Unit for Social Studies to match. It covers most of the new content: This unit has not been tried in the classroom so I am looking for the first 5 people who write a comment on this post with their e-mail to demo parts of it or all of it with their class and provide feedback. I plan on doing the same. Anyone interested? My plan is to do a small Matter Unit next. Wish me luck! My student teacher leaves after the first week of March and my time will be up!!

This post is part 1 in my inquiry series. To learn more about inquiry click through to see my many other posts about inquiry. If you are new to my blog,