Oh great, ‘Inquiry Day’, if success is measured in smiles and participation our grade came in on top. The students, teachers and everyone walking by became involved in the cardboard development.
To prepare for the day we have been working on the attributes of being a good communicator, thinker and inquirer; also the key concepts of perspective and reflection to ensure a trusting productive work atmosphere. We also took time to explore how to use the ipads for recording information and searching for kid friendly information. The students have started to spontaneously use the ipads for different situations during readers workshop and units of inquiry, generally to find images at this stage.
On the day we placed piles of folded cardboard boxes on the meeting carpets, students of course started asking questions as to why they are there. We recorded the questions on the whiteboards and strengthened the questions using blanks communication ideas. Students were immediately engaged discussing with each other and all adults what the possibilities could be. They discussed their ideas and actively listened to others in the class.
At morning break we eat in a picnic style on the carpet altogether while watching a video, Caine’s Arcade.
The discussion during the video was amazing. Students built on their ideas of the morning and openly, quietly shared these ideas with the peers around them. Just like watching videos with friends at home students engaged with the media and each other with natural responses to the video. Originally we had programed stops during the video to discuss ideas and thoughts but the scene was a natural sharing time.
Students asked, ‘Are we going to do like Caine?’, ‘Are we going to make an arcade?’, teachers asked, ‘What day is it?’. After a time the students understood that they were going to decide what to do with all the cardboard and questions changed to asked the logistics. We let them know where all the resources were around the room and that they could do research with the ipads and that there are video’s playing around the room if you are unsure of your inquiry.
They were off
Inquiry Day on PhotoPeach
Now for the use of computers, and ipads students checked various things quickly and I am proud to say remembered to add .edu for safer material. Just a couple of questions…
- ‘How to make a ramp?’, checked YouTube
- ‘What is an arcade?’, checked using YouTube
- ‘How many games are there?’ used google images with the key words cardboard arcade games .edu and browsed all available images. We have let the students know that we use .edu so that the images and information will be more appropriate for use at school.
The games
Then the finally playing the games with all the rules, explanations, prizes and tickets!!
Cardboard Arcade Grade One TIS on PhotoPeach
Check out this really cool UbD for, Inquiry Day 2013
