Discovery Time

Twice a day, the students in my kindergarten class have Discovery Time. This is a time to explore, investigate, create, problem solve, develop relationships and experiment. It is also a time for me to meet with small groups for guided reading, writing, math or inquiry projects. When I am not doing that, it is a time for me to sit down with students to talk about what they are doing and thinking. Discovery Time culminates with a time to share and learn from one another.

Although the main Discovery Time areas do not change, the activities available often do. Below are some pictures of what we have been up to lately.

weaving on the loom

creating patterns

taking apart radios at the take apart area

comparing objects by length

creating mosaics

building wood sculptures

expanding stories from Writing Workshop

building in the construction area

writing letters for friends and family

practicing letter formation

playing at the sensory table

observing and comparing parts of plants

painting

reading and listening to books on CD

creating at the light table

finding things to represent letters for our co-created alphabet

creating a still-life drawing using oil pastels

enjoying a treat for the senses--carrot cake play-doh!

making a plan and then replicating the plan using loose parts

making carrot-applesauce muffins

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Carrot Inquiry--Part Two

"The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery."

~Mark van Doren

Over the past week, the students and I have been discovering answers to our inquiry questions about carrots. We confirmed some theories, began a few experiments, gave our creative energies a workout and honed fine motor skills.  We aren't finished yet, however.  Here is a sampling of what we have been up to.

After discussing the properties of 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes, we examined a tray full of carrots from our garden.  Then, we created a graph to show what shape we thought most of the carrots were.  We analyzed the data and watched a short video, which confirmed our results.

The activity below didn't answer any of our inquiry questions, but it did allow us to practice one of our state standards.  The children weighed and measured carrots to determine which were the heaviest, longest, etc. 

These videos show interviews with some of the students using the same materials.  I love how their thinking becomes visible as they work! 

The students used ultra-fine Sharpie markers to draw carrots in detail and then painted them using liquid watercolor paints. 

One of the students' favorite activities was getting to peel carrots.  They would have done this all day long if I would have let them!

We made torn paper carrots and labeled the parts. This covered another state standard: I can name the parts of plants.

The students wanted to know what the top of the carrot was called.  We planted carrot tops to see what would happen and put them in our kindergarten greenhouse, which was purchased by our PTA.  After a few days, the students observed that stems and leaves were growing out of the carrots.  This was confirmed by a book we read called Carrots Grow Underground. I have never planted the top of a carrot, so this was a really neat experiment for me! 

We read the following books:

We also watched another video about carrots, which helped us find the answers to a few more of our questions. This week, we will be wrapping up our inquiry by planting carrot seeds in our Root-Vue Farm and making carrot-applesauce muffins. I also made some carrot cake play-doh for the students to explore using their senses. Finally, my challenge will be to create documentation panels to show the thinking that was made visible and the answers they discovered. In the future, I would like to create the panels as we go, but since this was my first classroom inquiry project I put it off to the end in order to focus on the steps of inquiry and to hone my skills.

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Carrot Inquiry--Part One

CARROTS!  CARROTS!  CARROTS!

At our school, we are blessed with a beautiful nature center. 

We are even allowed to have our own classroom garden plots. Last spring, my class planted carrots and field corn.

Wanting my students to get a taste of the inquiry process, I thought a teacher-led inquiry about carrots would be a wonderful place to start. 

First, I shared the book Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens.  It is a funny story about a lazy bear and a cunning hare, which indirectly introduces children to parts of plants.

Following the story, I brought my class out to our nature center.  I asked them to tell me what they noticed in our garden plot.  Many noticed the corn right away and a few noticed leaves (from the carrots). One student even shouted out, "Carrots!"

Next, I asked them how they could find out what plant the leaves belonged to.  A few started bending down and pulling on them.  This proved to be harder than they thought.  Soon enough, however, the first person discovered a carrot and pandemonium ensued! The look on the child's face was priceless.  Soon, all the children were frantically trying to pull carrots out of the ground.  When it proved difficult for some, classmates offered tips and assistance.  It was wonderful to see this display of teamwork, a skill often underdeveloped in our current educational system.

The next day, I read the book I Wonder by Annaka Harris.

This a wonderful story about what it means to wonder. One of my favorite quotes from the book is, "It's okay to say, I don't know... When we don't know something, we get to wonder about it!"

I asked my students to tell me what the do know about carrots, and we came up with this list:

From there, I asked them to tell me what they wonder about carrots.  I made a web with from their thoughts.

Knowing that identifying parts of plants is one of our kindergarten science standards, I had the students identify where they were in relation to the learning goal--a 1 meaning they didn't know much about plants; a 2 meaning they new some parts, but not all; a 3 meaning they could name all the parts of a plant; and a 4 meaning they could name all the parts and tell what they do.  This was the first time we had talked about learning targets and how to think about where we are in relation to them, so I had to walk a few students through the process.  In the end, our chart looked like this.

With the students' questions in mind, I went home and mapped out possible activities and resources we could use to find answers.  I included books and videos as well.  My map looks like this:

Finally, on the back of my web, I highlighted all the state standards I thought I could cover during this inquiry.

This week, the students will engage in activities which will allow them to find answers to their questions.  In my next blog, I will share pictures of what we discovered and created, and examples of problems we solved.