A Star (Inquiry) Is Born!

After wrapping up our carrot inquiry, our class was in a state of limbo for a few weeks. There didn't seem to be anything that the majority of the students were showing interest in, so I decided to help them along. 

I placed the students in groups of four and asked them to talk with one another about things they wondered about or were interested in learning about. Next, I made a list of their ideas. After that, I had the groups talk about the ideas and agree on one idea that they, as a group, were interested in learning more about. Finally, I tallied the responses to find out what our next inquiry topic would be. The result: STARS!

Once we knew what our topic would be, I asked the students what they already knew, or thought they knew, about stars. This is what they came up with:

In order to facilitate our inquiry, I needed to find out what the students wanted to know about stars. I had them talk once more in their groups, and then I collected the following questions from them:

1) What are stars made of?

2) Do they get light from the sun?

3) Why are stars in the sky and how do they stay in the air?

4) How long do they stay in the sky?

5) Why do stars come out at night?

After doing some research on my own (and with the help of a colleague), I discovered that most of the answers to the students' questions would have to be found in books and videos found on the internet. At first, this bothered me a bit, because I like the students to learn through discovery. Then, when I reviewed our kindergarten standards, I realized how many literature and informational text standards could be covered this way, as well as many speaking and listening standards.

I did find one fun experiment to do with the entire class, which taught us why stars twinkle. Not one of their questions, but fun anyway.

I also incorporated some Discovery Time activities which related to the inquiry topic. These are shown below.

Positive and Negative Space Watercolor Spray Painting

Composing/Decomposing Shapes

Constellation Construction Using Marshmallows and Toothpicks

Star Patterns at the Light Table

Constellation Lacing Cards

Star Wire Sculptures

Star Cave

Throughout the week, we spent time finding answers to the our questions in books and videos. When an answer was found, I typed it up into a panel for our documentation bulletin board. This is what we have discovered so far:

This week, we will wrap up our star inquiry with a Van Gogh Starry Night art project and by sharing some more books in order to find answers to our remaining questions. Then, it will be on to the next inquiry!