Researching in the Early Years

As Early Years students prepare for the next grade level, we begin to look at strategies they will need to help them be successful in their new classes. One of those strategies is researching.  

For the past few weeks, Mr. Smith, our Hisar Early Years 3/4 teacher, has been working with students to support them with their research questions. Understanding that asking specific questions is an important skill, students are asked to think about what they really want to learn.  So last week, Mr. Smith asked Ms. Wachowiak, our Primary Technology Integration Specialist, to come in to discuss keywords and research questions.

Two students, Folke and Sebastian, were very curious about big cats. They wanted to know, ‘What are the differences between jaguars, cheetahs, and leopards?’ We used photosforclass.com to help up look at images to see if we could ‘spot’ any differences. After looking at several photos, we found that we had even more questions than we began with!

Afterwards, the students shared their thinking with the class using the iPad app Explain Everything which prompted many more questions and some interesting theories. Additionally, students have begun to incorporate their new found knowledge when engaging in play based learning activities. Big cats are no longer just animals, but rather a cheetah which is the fastest animal on the planet or that a jaguar that has very powerful legs. Please see the video below and hear our questions regarding these amazing animals.