Perky Preschool

After several weeks of Tuning In and Finding Out, the preschoolers are now getting ready to apply their thinking, research, and communication skills.  They will spend the remaining weeks digging deeper and becoming experts to a specific animal. They chose the animal that they would like to learn more about.  They worked on their research, and found out important information about the animal. As researchers, they used different tools to gather information.  They looked at books, watched educational videos and interviewed people.  These information were then documented on to their research paper.  They understood that there are things that they know (or think they already know) but they should be able to prove these ideas.  They need evidence to back up their ideas.  Alongside their RESEARCH, they are SORTING OUT information and developing a plan on how to COMMUNICATE their understanding to the audience for the Animal Exhibit. They started making th...

Research is what I'm doing, when I don't know what I'm doing!  - Wernher von Braun-  Students, as early as preschool are being prepared to different ways for researching. One of the ATLs (Approaches to Learning) in this unit is the Research Skill.   T his skill prepares the mind to develop comprehension, memory and understand theories and concepts. It also helps them strengthen their time management and problem solving skills.  This week, the preschoolers chose an animal that they will become an expert in and started researching about it . They used multiple resources such as books and videos.    While watching an informative video, they applied note-taking skills to gather information. They listened and to keep their notes organised, they were taught outlining using bullet points, illustrations, labels, diagrams to record important information.        You could see how their skills are already evident as early as 5 and 6 year olds!...

  LIFE CYCLE round.. goes around and around.. never ends... repeats... -Perky Preschool- It is amazing how everyone (children and adults) gets hooked when talking about life. The depth and perspectives of the conversation vary between child and adult's but both agree on one thing - that life is full of wonder! Based on their questions, the students started researching informations about some of these wonderings: "Why do animals and other living things die?" - Leanna " Why do animals kill each other?" - Kai,  "Why do fish and sharks kill other small fishes?" - Mathieu Several prompts, videos, books and examples helped them gain an understanding about  FOOD CHAIN.  Together we came up with a the meaning. It is a process where organisms depend on each other for food.  It is when energy is transferred to other living things.  They discovered that a chain involves   Producers  who makes their own food.  Consumers    are organisms...

'Unless someone like you  care a whole awful lot,  nothing is going to get better. It's not.' - The Lorax -  Dr. Seuss What an exciting week it has been!  As we move on to the Finding Out stage in our unit, the class chose the book 'The Lorax'  for our read-a-loud. They made 'connections' to our current unit and the students were inspired by the story.  I had to step back to let them continue on steering our class learning.  They inquired and talked about the word 'POLLUTION'. Questions came up:  Why is pollution happening? Why do some people only care about themselves? How can they let this happen? They drew and wrote down their thoughts about this topic to share to the school community.  UNIT OF INQUIRY Observation skills is not just simply 'looking' or just 'seeing' things, it can be very specific and children learn how to recognize the importance of things around them.  Noticing - a very important skill of a  researcher.  I...