Inquiry Time

It was so easy to get back into the swing of things after the long break with this group of kiddos. During our remote week Kristine spent some time putting together an "Inquiry Basket" that our little scientists can use to explore in the woods. Inquiry happens very naturally all the time with young children - it's the act of asking questions and searching for answers. One of our pre-k teacher "teaching goals" for this year is to really dive deep in supporting children in their inquiry, and creating this basket of focused tools is a step in that process.  

Students had a great time trying out the tools in the basket last week, and now we are starting to more formally follow the inquiry cycle when an interesting question comes up in the woods (as they do ALL the time). The inquiry cycle steps are:

1. We see, we wonder, we come up with a question.  

2. We explore and investigate

3. We discuss our thinking

4. We reflect with a group

Our first inquiry came about quite naturally. It's not uncommon for a pair of nuthatches to visit our bird feeder "Birdie" during circle time or story time. Some students have noticed that the nuthatches seem to prefer a certain type of birdseed. So our question became "What kind of birdseed does Nutty the Nuthatch like best?" We explored birdseed with our new tools, came up with some ideas and wrote down our thinking, and then devised an experiment. We made a small table for Birdie and put three bowls on her lap - one of mixed birdseed, one of black sunflower seeds only, and one of black sunflower seeds in water (one child said "I think it'll be easier for the birds to eat this if they're wet.")

When we came back to school on Tuesday we had quite a surprise - the bowl of black sunflower seeds was empty, had no snow on it despite the storm, and was filled with some sort of mysterious scat! As all scientists know, one question often leads to another, and so our inquiry continues. 

Remember that there is no school on Monday or Tuesday of next week. Enjoy these pictures from the past few school days, and know that we're looking forward to getting back into a more "normal" schedule as our second semester begins. 

Before starting any projects we always like to take time to explore new tools and materials. 

Binoculars, net, collecting containers, tape measure, notebook, dropper and jar, tweezers, tongs, and writing tools

These three got to work right away when they noticed a spoon stuck in the snow. They used the droppers, some warm water and some tweezers to get it out. 

After a day of introducing the new materials to the class, we asked the question "What kind of birdseed does Nutty the Nuthatch like best?" We looked closely at the birdseed and teachers wrote down our thinking.

Then we set up our experiment. That was on Friday morning. 

On Friday afternoon after school the experiment looked like this. 

And on Tuesday morning it looked like this!

What is that in the bowl? We truly don't know - if you have any ideas please let us know!

In other parts of the forest a couple of students explore our Problem Solving tool kit. They worked through an imaginary scenario with our Peace Wands and chose the best solution for the problem. 

A cozy ice den for some forest friends. 

We got new mugs! 

The forest was a bit of a mess on Tuesday morning after the storm. This crew spent quite a bit of time "cleaning up."

Our January self-portraits were done with watercolors on snow!

Some of the books we've enjoyed this week - we love a mix of fiction and non-fiction. Ask your child about the silly characters in our recent favorite, Those Darn Squirrels!