This Last Week at Forest Kindergarten……
One of the boys decided that it wasn’t spring yet, but it wasn’t winter. When I asked what season it was he declared “Treasure Hunt Season!” They were all so excited to find so many “treasures” on our travels today. From rocks, to pine cones, the countless sticks to a natural “rope” that was a vine or root the kids were having fun searching out new discoveries that were being revealed throughout the melting snow.
In Inquiry based learning there are 4 levels of inquiry with Confirmation Inquiry being at the bottom with teachers deciding and leading an inquiry.
The first or top Level is Open Inquiry where children are the leaders and decide everything from topic to finding their own information and drawing their own conclusions.
In teacher directed settings teachers are encouraged to start with level four as children are not as capable of thinking without teacher guidance and build to level one, the gold standard of learning, by the end of elementary school to take control of their own learning.
In child directed settings children are taught how to learn from the beginning and don’t need teachers constraining their learning with levels 2-4. Instead they learn the gold standard – the first level of inquiry based learning from the beginning as they learn to explore using open inquiry based learning.
The “treasure hunt” season has brought open inquiry to the forefront and the excitement of discovery is felt at our Forest Kindergarten.