Planning (but not too much) for inquiry…

 

There were so many things to be excited about during the planning of this unit with our Year 1 team:

• the honest reflection of the teachers who engaged in this inquiry last year and their willingness to view it through fresh eyes;
• the openness of the teachers for whom the unit is new and the ideas they bring to the learning process;
• how far we have come from the days when we thought we had to plan the whole inquiry in advance;
• our split screen approach to planning, in which we simultaneously consider the unit and the format of the new planner we are designing;
• the opportunities for the development of the whole child, both as a curious scientist and as a human being who cares about animals;
• the authentic learning that will arise from having caterpillars, chickens and rabbits in the learning space;
• the teachers’ own inquiry into how best to provoke, support and encourage the children’s inquiry;
• the agency learners will have as they help care for the animals, share their wonderings to lead the inquiry, develop their own theories, find the best ways to document their observations and choose how they might like to present their learning…

and now, the wonderful possibilities arising from the children’s initial wonderings:

• I wonder if they eat their poo.
• I wonder what patterns they will have on their wings.
• I wonder what they do when no-one is there…