My name is Diane Kashin and I have the honour of being a guest blogger for The Sunflower School. I am a professor of early childhood education at Ryerson University and I blog at Technology Rich Inquiry Based Research. Heather Jackson is the director of The Sunflower School. She and I go way back. We have travelled to Reggio Emilia, Italy together twice, once in 2006 and again in 2011 to participate in study tours. We have organized many professional learning conferences for early childhood educators with Evette Serota and Rosalba Bortolotti as partners in the Acorn Collaborative. We relish the time we have together because our conversations are rich with ideas and challenges. One topic we love to talk about is documentation.
Within the walls of the two sites of this amazing school, is documentation of many different inquiries or investigations with toddlers, preschoolers and school age children. I am fascinated with inquiries and wonder often about how educators decide on what will be the focus of an inquiry? How do you determine the focus and what do you name the inquiry? What gives birth to the inquiry and how long does it live?
Heather is a hands on director. She spends many hours working with children. Recently I had the opportunity to spend time at both locations of The Sunflower School and Heather was proud to show me the rich documentation of the "whale shark" investigation. This was her inquiry and I could see that she had poured her heart and soul into the process. I was impressed and inspired by all the wonderful ways that the children had represented their learning about this big and powerful creature. I was intrigued by the way Heather had documented and curious about what she was thinking about the next steps. I decided to interview Heather to find out more.
The Whale Shark Inquiry as Inspired by Steve Jenkins
How did this inquiry start?
We started reading Actual Size by Steve Jenkins and the children loved the book. They enjoyed the illustrations and the detail in the illustrations – we researched and found that he had written many other books and we got them from the library. We found out that he was not just a writer but an illustrator as well. We read the book Down, Down, Down and in the book it started at the top of the ocean and it worked it's way down to all the layers of the ocean. In the middle layer was the whale shark picture – he described it and after we finished reading the book, there were four or five children who wanted to see the book again and they went right to the whale shark. They had a lot of questions and we went to YouTube and we started watching videos about whale sharks and then we started drawing. The children were especially fascinated by how big the whale shark's mouth was and wondered what would happen if you swam right into the mouth?
How do you decide whether an inquiry focus is worthy of further investigation?
We decided to keep going because of the children kept talking about whale sharks. When they were at home with their parents they would go to the library and take out books with whale sharks and then bring them to school. They wondered … do whale sharks live in Orangeville? After weeks and weeks of repeated discussion we decided that this was something big and we needed to go with an idea that emerged from the discussion - to create a life sized baby whale shark. We measured with our bodies with the children all lying down. Our baby whale shark is 21 feet. If we had recreated an adult we would have needed 42 feet.
Thinking deeply and beyond facts and information about the whale shark, what's the big idea behind the inquiry?
The power and strength of the shark. The children are fascinated with the bigness. Could it be that they have a need to feel power to feel empowered? This idea is one that we are going to explore more in depth.
Where are you now with the whale shark inquiry?
We want to keep thinking about power and strength but we are also making blueprints or patterns of whale sharks and we are going to create individual stuffed whale sharks. We also noticed that the children in all their representations of the whale sharks keep focusing on dots and lines. Right now they are challenged with how can we make dots and lines on material? I am thinking about The Dot and Thinking with a Line as something to explore further and then as we lead into the summer we are thinking of doing some ephemeral art as inspired by Andy Goldsworthy.
What types of questions do you ask in the process of an inquiry/investigation?
We ask "how" questions because those are about building and constructing. Building and constructing knowledge, ideas, and theories.
Sometimes children lose interest or focus. What do you do to keep the inquiry going?
The responsibility is with the teacher to keep it interesting and inviting. With the whale shark investigation we keep saying ... “it will never be over”. We keep providing invitations, provocations, sparks and prompts. We think of ones that will enrich and sustain. If an inquiry is worthy of investigation it can keep going and going. If children are not interested, I think perhaps the teachers are not paying attention enough to the play and are not truly listening to the children. Our children almost seem obsessed with whale sharks. They keep bringing whale sharks that they made at home and we invite them to hang their representations in the room.
What are your challenges with inquiries/investigations?
Sometimes we forget to slow down and to realize what the big idea really is. There are challenges in the demands of the day in child care. It is hard to find that quiet moment to think deeply and reflect. It is hard to find the time to dialogue. I make sure my teachers get one hour a week preparation time but that time can go very fast.
Where would you like to go with this inquiry if you did not have any challenges?
The children wrote a letter to Steve Jenkins but he didn't respond. It would have been amazing if he responded. Perhaps he could have Skyped or Face Timed or visited us. We did some research and found out that the closest whale shark was in San Diego Zoo - it would be amazing for the children to see a real whale shark.
So what is the big idea, Heather?
The big ideas are about creativity, power, and strength. It is about expression in 100 different languages. It is about engagement and a sense of belonging. It is about building a community of learners engage together in a common inquiry. It is about teachers honouring children's ideas and input.
Within the walls of the two sites of this amazing school, is documentation of many different inquiries or investigations with toddlers, preschoolers and school age children. I am fascinated with inquiries and wonder often about how educators decide on what will be the focus of an inquiry? How do you determine the focus and what do you name the inquiry? What gives birth to the inquiry and how long does it live?
Heather is a hands on director. She spends many hours working with children. Recently I had the opportunity to spend time at both locations of The Sunflower School and Heather was proud to show me the rich documentation of the "whale shark" investigation. This was her inquiry and I could see that she had poured her heart and soul into the process. I was impressed and inspired by all the wonderful ways that the children had represented their learning about this big and powerful creature. I was intrigued by the way Heather had documented and curious about what she was thinking about the next steps. I decided to interview Heather to find out more.
The Whale Shark Inquiry as Inspired by Steve Jenkins
How did this inquiry start?
We started reading Actual Size by Steve Jenkins and the children loved the book. They enjoyed the illustrations and the detail in the illustrations – we researched and found that he had written many other books and we got them from the library. We found out that he was not just a writer but an illustrator as well. We read the book Down, Down, Down and in the book it started at the top of the ocean and it worked it's way down to all the layers of the ocean. In the middle layer was the whale shark picture – he described it and after we finished reading the book, there were four or five children who wanted to see the book again and they went right to the whale shark. They had a lot of questions and we went to YouTube and we started watching videos about whale sharks and then we started drawing. The children were especially fascinated by how big the whale shark's mouth was and wondered what would happen if you swam right into the mouth?
How do you decide whether an inquiry focus is worthy of further investigation?
We decided to keep going because of the children kept talking about whale sharks. When they were at home with their parents they would go to the library and take out books with whale sharks and then bring them to school. They wondered … do whale sharks live in Orangeville? After weeks and weeks of repeated discussion we decided that this was something big and we needed to go with an idea that emerged from the discussion - to create a life sized baby whale shark. We measured with our bodies with the children all lying down. Our baby whale shark is 21 feet. If we had recreated an adult we would have needed 42 feet.
Thinking deeply and beyond facts and information about the whale shark, what's the big idea behind the inquiry?
The power and strength of the shark. The children are fascinated with the bigness. Could it be that they have a need to feel power to feel empowered? This idea is one that we are going to explore more in depth.
Where are you now with the whale shark inquiry?
We want to keep thinking about power and strength but we are also making blueprints or patterns of whale sharks and we are going to create individual stuffed whale sharks. We also noticed that the children in all their representations of the whale sharks keep focusing on dots and lines. Right now they are challenged with how can we make dots and lines on material? I am thinking about The Dot and Thinking with a Line as something to explore further and then as we lead into the summer we are thinking of doing some ephemeral art as inspired by Andy Goldsworthy.
What types of questions do you ask in the process of an inquiry/investigation?
We ask "how" questions because those are about building and constructing. Building and constructing knowledge, ideas, and theories.
Sometimes children lose interest or focus. What do you do to keep the inquiry going?
The responsibility is with the teacher to keep it interesting and inviting. With the whale shark investigation we keep saying ... “it will never be over”. We keep providing invitations, provocations, sparks and prompts. We think of ones that will enrich and sustain. If an inquiry is worthy of investigation it can keep going and going. If children are not interested, I think perhaps the teachers are not paying attention enough to the play and are not truly listening to the children. Our children almost seem obsessed with whale sharks. They keep bringing whale sharks that they made at home and we invite them to hang their representations in the room.
What are your challenges with inquiries/investigations?
Sometimes we forget to slow down and to realize what the big idea really is. There are challenges in the demands of the day in child care. It is hard to find that quiet moment to think deeply and reflect. It is hard to find the time to dialogue. I make sure my teachers get one hour a week preparation time but that time can go very fast.
Where would you like to go with this inquiry if you did not have any challenges?
The children wrote a letter to Steve Jenkins but he didn't respond. It would have been amazing if he responded. Perhaps he could have Skyped or Face Timed or visited us. We did some research and found out that the closest whale shark was in San Diego Zoo - it would be amazing for the children to see a real whale shark.
So what is the big idea, Heather?
The big ideas are about creativity, power, and strength. It is about expression in 100 different languages. It is about engagement and a sense of belonging. It is about building a community of learners engage together in a common inquiry. It is about teachers honouring children's ideas and input.