Our School Investigation

Most of our investigations in kindergarten arise out of students' interest and/or needs. However, I've always been curious to try an investigation that begins with a teacher-selected guiding question instead. I wanted a question that would lend itself to as much critical thinking as possible, and I also wanted one that would enable the kiddos to do the actual investigating themselves. Since we had already completed three interest-driven investigations so far this school year, January seemed like a perfect time to try something new.  

Our investigation began with the question, "What are the most important places at our school?" Since one of my main goals this year is to get those little brains thinking deeply as much as possible, we brainstormed a list the first day and the following day I challenged the kindergartners to explain their reasoning behind each suggestion.

Once our list was complete, we headed out to explore the Learning Village to see if there were any important spots we might have forgotten.  

Along the way the kiddos discovered some places they didn't know existed!

We added our new discoveries (along with all our why's, of course) to a new list, and then using both of our lists as a reference point we began to discuss, discuss, discuss. We've had a lot of whole group discussions so far this year, so the kiddos are very familiar with expressing and explaining their opinions and also listening to each other's.  It was SO much fun listening to them argue back and forth, present their reasonings to each other, and work so hard to try to convince each other which places are most important. 

After several days of back and forth discussions, each kindergartner narrowed his/her thinking down to the top four most important places...

We tallied up their answers and ultimately settled on the cafeteria, gym, offices, and library.

The kiddos individually ranked those four places in order of importance, and from those rankings we formed smaller interest-based investigation groups. Now it was officially time to start investigating!

In order to prime their brains for investigating/thinking deeply about their location, they spent some time drawing and labeling things they thought they might see on their first visit.

Each investigation group worked with a teacher to list all the things they already (thought they) knew about their place.  

And, finally, they headed off (iPad cameras in hand) for their first visits. I had a hunch that taking iPads along to photograph would encourage the the kiddos to look more closely and deliberately at their surroundings, and I was definitely right! 

Using their photographs as a reference they later worked in groups to draw maps of their location, incorporating as much detail as possible into their drawings.

Then they began to WONDER...

and wonder, 

and wonder.

In order to find answers to all their wonders we set up times for each group to meet with an "expert." The cafeteria explorers interviewed Chef Holt, the library explorers interviewed Ms. Fitz, 

the gym explorers interviewed Mr. Connors, and the office explorers interviewed Ms. Monty AND

Mr. Lourie. They headed off to each location with questions in hand, ready to both ask and (hopefully) listen carefully.   

Once all the interviews/visits were complete, groups met collaboratively to see how much they could remember. Each group could count between 8-12 new things they had learned about their location, so clearly they had been listening along the way. 

The kindergartners each chose four favorite things they wanted to remember and recorded their learning using words and/or pictures. It was fascinating to see what information stuck out most for each kiddo.  

Now our gym, cafeteria, office, and library experts were ready to teach Ms. Taylor's friends some of the most important things they had learned about our school. They each planned out a project

and got to work painting, building, taping, drawing, and adding details.  

In an attempt to make their learning as visible as possible (and not accidentally bypass the ever-important reflection phase), each kindergartner explained to me what his/her project teaches and why it is so important. I added their typed words to their project displays, 

  
and then they got to become the experts and teach Ms. Taylor's friends all about what they had learned.

Like any investigation, there were so many things we could have done along the way that we never got a chance to do because of time (and interest) constraints. I had hoped to use our new learning to help figure out which of our final four places is actually most important and why, especially when  considered from different perspectives. However, with kindergartners I find there is a fine line between taking the time to go deep into a topic and taking it too far. Since our rainbow investigation was already underway and interest was waning, it was clearly time to move on.  

Nevertheless, we all gained so much from this investigation. I got to experiment with using a guided question, the kindergartners got to know their school (and it's people) better, and I noticed an explosion in their literacy growth from all the purposeful drawing and writing that was incorporated into the process. 

Not only did we accomplish a lot, but my hope is that this investigation was an empowering learning experience for the kiddos. Working collaboratively in small groups they essentially created (via their thoughts, ideas, and wonders) the content of their investigation and also uncovered all the answers for themselves (through their visits and interviews) along the way. This investigation was so much less of me and so much more of them, which I loved!! I'm already dreaming up ways to put their newest investigation skills to use in the future :)