References Mind Map

Ontario. (2010). The full-day early learning -- kindergarten program: 2010-11. Toronto, ON: Ministry of Education.

Curriculum Connections

Curriculum Connections

                Lesson plans created by a teacher as well as those that are child directed all include a variety of curriculum topics. Children naturally develop and express skills in all areas of the curriculum without any intention. Play experiences both individual and shared are amazing opportunities for children to develop and deepen their understanding on an endless amount of topics. When creating strict lesson plans teachers often only plan to teach a single curriculum topic and fail to see all the extended learning that can and does take place. Play experiences are so important for children as they experience so many different aspects of learning. The clear water project an activity mainly dominated by science instruction touches upon many other areas of the curriculum from the FDELK. These areas include language and communication, mathematics while furthering social development. The documentation process is an amazing way to communicate these learning's to teachers, parents and children. It allows all involved to deepen understanding of how children learn and the way in which children go about their learning.

Big Idea

The Big Idea

                The FDELK a curriculum resource outlines the “Big Ideas” for the major aspects of learning. These Big Ideas outline what children should be learning and are capable of in this domain of learning. The benefits of the Big Ideas are plentiful, they outline the priorities of learning and what teachers should be looking for and implementing in lesson plans. Big Ideas give meaning and connect a variety of skills in regards to topics and themes. When applying Big Ideas to play based learning, it is often the case that they are not seen as part of the experience until the reflection portion of the Inquiry Process, when those involved in the experience can visualize and discuss their learning. In the clean water project multiple Big Ideas were used including those of science, math and language.

Inquiry Process: Communication

Communication:

                The final stage in the Inquiry Process is the communication stage. This stage in which all parties involved come together and communicate their findings, sharing ideas and their findings. In the clear water project communication process was done through a share circle in which all students participated. The share circle allowed the participants to express their new knowledge and continue to hypothesize for future learning. It brought together all the learning experiences from a variety of curriculum topics including math and language skills.

 

Inquiry Process: Investigation

Investigation:

                During the investigation stage the teacher, having previously allotted time for the children to explore, now becomes more involved in the process.  Throughout the investigation stage the teacher or more knowledgeable other documents the learning that has gone on in previous stages. The documentation includes taking pictures, recordings, writing samples of what the children do and say. Through these documentation process the children are able to visualize their own learning experiences and further their own understandings by seeing the learning through another perspective. The children and teacher can also come to conclusions based on the learning experience through the documentation process. In the clear water project the teacher took pictures of the exercise. Through the observation process the teacher was able to identify that the students were interested in the treatment of water and their interrelationship with the environment.

Inquiry Process: Exploration

Exploration:

                Exploration, the second stage in the Inquiry Process, is when the children have the opportunity to manipulate materials and construct their own knowledge. The students using their own previous knowledge can collectively expand on their ideas and develop new ideas and understandings. In this stage the students can also develop further questions to explore based on the exploration. In the clean water activity the children were exploring a variety of natural and unnatural materials to investigate how water is made clean. Their findings were being recorded on chart paper.

Inquiry Process: Initial Engagement

Initial Engagement

                The initial engagement is the first stage in the Inquiry Process. In this stage the focus is on the inspiration of the forthcoming project. The questions “why did this happen” or “how can we make that happen again” are often asked. In this example the teacher while completing a water colour lesson sparked the children’s curiosity of clean water. The children after seeing the water being poured into the sink asked the questions “But where does the water go?” and “How does the water get clean and come back out of the tap?”. The children’s curiosity was encouraged when the teacher brought in a variety of materials for the children to explore.