Hide Notes 

Slide 1: “What can I use this for?” A Pre-School Inquiry under the Organising Theme of “How we express ourselves”
Slide 2: What is “Inquiry” and what does it look like for Early Childhood children in a PYP school such as ours? This booklet seeks to document the journey through one inquiry undertaken by Pre-School children at ZIS. Its origins are rooted in the children’s natural curiosity and perennial love of dinosaurs which, in this case, is triggered by a poster on the Library wall. However, the PYP “Organising Theme” that is being focused on is “How we express ourselves”.
Slide 3: In our Pre-School “How we express ourselves” is planned as a year long unit titled “What can I use this for?”. By planning it in this way it allows staff to provide many different opportunities and contexts for children to develop their understanding of the materials that they can use to express their ideas, thoughts and understandings. Their plan is for children to experience 2D and 3D media using paint, crayons, pens, pencils, collage, fabric, papers, and modelling materials and this particular journey encompasses all of these. As the children use these different media they construct their own understandings of what each one is like, how it works and what it can be used for; in PYP terms, it’s form and function.
Slide 4: Concepts of Inquiry Whilst we often see the question as the most predominant form of inquiry this is not necessarily how it manifests itself, particularly in Early Childhood. The function of real inquiry is to go beyond the known through interaction with others and with the materials and tools available in a rich learning environment. It can take the form of wondering, experimenting, investigating possibilities, collecting, analysing and reflecting on information, considering different ideas and conjecturing.
Slide 5: Everyone loves Dinosaurs! We had a big poster in the library with many different kinds of dinosaurs on it. But the poster did not tell us the names of the dinosaurs. We used many books from the library to help us find the names to go with the dinosaurs. There was a dinosaur flying in the sky and we found the same one in the book. It is called a Pterodactylus. We learned that a pterodactylus has very long wings. The wings can stretch up to 3 meters. We used the meter stick to see how long 3 meters is. Wow, that’s a big bird!!! Implicit questions related to inquiry: How do we find out? Where could we find some answers? How big is big?
Slide 6: I have a T- Rex! The children hold up their dinosaurs when they see a picture in the book that matches. Immediately some of them know the name of this dinosaur. “It’s a s Stegosaurus.” , “It’s spiky.”
Slide 7: These dinosaurs have long necks and they eat leaves. They are called Diplodocus. “I don’t know what it is, It has 3 horns.” Another dinosaur with a long neck is held up, but it didn’t look like the other long necks in the book or the plastic ones we had. It had a big bump on his head. We need to find out how these long necks are different from each other. “It looks like hair on it’s head.” Inquiry mode: Wondering, The statement that it looked like hair contains implicit questions about form: What is it like?
Slide 8: Using books to collect information on what different dinosaurs looked like. In PYP literacy is considered a key tool in inquiry and trans-disciplinary learning. Here children are “reading” for information.
Slide 9: Here was an interest which obviously fired the children’s imaginations. In picking up that interest which of our organising themes would it best serve? The Pre-school’s Unit of Inquiry on “How we express ourselves” is about using a wide range of materials to represent ideas, thoughts, and understandings. It is a unit based on the questions “How can I use this?”, ” What is this like?” and linked to the PYP key concepts of form and function. Materials used: water based paint, brushes, printing Sponges. Many of us helped to paint a forest for dinosaurs to live in.
Slide 10: Everyone takes turns to cut out their favorite dinosaurs. It is difficult cutting and we had to be careful not to cut off the heads or tails. Great care is taken to cut out the long neck thin neck of the dinosaur.
Slide 11: Materials and tools: scissors, clip art pictures and glue sticks.
Slide 12: The children choose places to place the dinosaurs that they have carefully cut out. Implicit inquiry: Where do I think this one should go and why? Such thoughts require thinking skills such as reasoning and logic.
Slide 13: Others look for places to put their dinosaurs on the big painting. One dinosaur is placed deep in the forest. This is a collaborative venture which entails discussion, reflecting on ideas and understandings with others. Above two children watch and consider the placing of another’s dinosaur. Does it belong there? Is it like the others in that place?
Slide 14: We made a web to find out what it is we already knew about dinosaurs and what we still wanted to find out about.  What do dinosaurs eat? Where do they live? Where do they sleep? What do they do all day? How big and how small are dinosaurs? The teacher models ways of organising information, helps the children reflect on it and generate other considerations for follow up. Whilst not part of the scope of the Inquiry Unit this discussion sustains their interest and leads them to further representations directly related to expressing themselves.
Slide 15: I know The biggest dinosaur is this big! The children were asked to go home and think about how big dinosaurs were and if they could fit inside their house.
Slide 16: Skills: Observational drawing Materials and tools: crayons, pencils, and pens Remember the organising theme? Here children are practicing a fundamental means of expression – drawing.
Slide 17: Lots of focus and concentration! “The dinosaur is walking along. He is looking for a cave. Then he finds a cave and goes underground.” “You can’t see the dinosaur , he is swimming in the waves.”
Slide 18: Key questions from the Expressing themselves inquiry – how can I use this? What is it like? What does it do? Here children find out about paint. Materials: tempura paint and brushes.
Slide 19: Another area the staff wanted the children to learn about in this Unit of Inquiry was 3D model making. Materials: modelling wire and papier mache Again key questions about “What can I use this for? and “What is it like?” are explored as they meet this new medium. Social skills are developed as children work together with peers and adults making joint decisions about their venture.
Slide 20: Having found out various pieces of information about where the dinosaurs live and what their surroundings might have been like the children bring together their motor skills, social skills, knowledge and understanding and use the materials they have been introduced to in order to represent what they know and express their understanding with the support of their teacher. Scenery is made to provide a background to small world play.
Slide 21: Representing and expressing themselves through storying. The caves and volcanoes that the children have made are used alongside natural objects to create scenery in which the children play out story scripts. “How we express ourselves” includes the medium of story telling. This oral skill is then transformed into the written medium with help from the teacher.
Slide 22: The T-Rex is going to sneak up on the stegosaurus and the 3 horn who are working and eating. The T-rex wants to eat them.
Slide 23: The T-Rex tries to get into the cave to eat the dinosaurs. There is a long neck watching from behind a tree.
Slide 24: The long neck smacks his tail against the feet of the T-Rex and knocks him over.
Slide 25: What can you do with an OHP? How can we use it? Materials and tools: OHP, photocopied outline, pens and paint. How big is big?
Slide 27: Collage is explored as another medium to express themselves. Materials and tools: fabric, tissue paper, paint, PVA glue, scissors, glue spreaders.
Slide 28: When they have tried many different ways of expressing their ideas they decided to create and build their own large dinosaur from paper mache. To establish the size of the head, the children began by using a balloon as the starting point. The children wanted to make a brachiosaurus. Here one of the class experts on dinosaurs approaches Caroline with a photo showing the shape of a Long Necks head. The dinosaur in the book had bump on it’s head. There is concern that the present shape is not quite right and Caroline is offered some advise.
Slide 29: The legs needed to be sturdy enough to hold up the large body , neck, and tail. The children didn’t seem to mind the messy paste. They worked with Caroline to finish the legs and the tail.
Slide 30: What to us for a body? The children decided that a cardboard box could be the right shape if they rounded out the corners with crumpled paper and lots and lots of masking tape. Long pieces of tape kept it all together. The dinosaur is beginning to take some shape!
Slide 31: A hole was made for the head and the tail. It helped the box was empty, so when the tail was pushed in, we just needed to add lots more paper and paste so it would hold together.
Slide 32: Let the painting begin! Getting the right color was very important. The children chose the paint colors they thought they might need to create the appropriate brachiosaurs color.
Slide 33: Putting on the final touches!