Beginning the learning - stirring the wonder

As part of enhancing the children's inquiry skills have begun to look at the process of 'acquiring' and creating knowledge pathways. Firstly we watched a snippet of David Attinbourough BBC series investigating various spiders. After we watched this the children discussed in groups what David must have done to become an expert in his field. The children constructed a pathway for his success, beginning at realizing a passion in his youth, through to studying and becoming recognized as an expert. We talked about how important it is to continually question the world around us, and to know which path to follow when we decide to pursue a goal. Next we reflected on how this relates to us as 'Inquiring learners'. During the BBC video many questions about the subject also popped up in our minds. The children were encouraged to jot these 'wonderings' down on stickies. As a class we chose the one wondering we wanted to have answered and the children were given the option of following up the question in their own time over the weekend. On Monday we will touch briefly on the findings, using the information as a starting point for our literacy unit (based on report writing genre).