I am beyond excited to blog about my upcoming TransformEd Inquiry Program for Kindergarten and Grade One children. Even though it officially begins this Sunday afternoon (details here), I already invited families in for orientation sessions to allow us time for building relationships.
In my opinion, you won't really have any kind of program if you do not know our learners and their families. Remember every child has a story, and their unique gifts are known best by their parent(s)/guardian(s). So why aren't we including them in inquiry planning?
That's something that I decided to change! I formed a small group in my creative studio space, and plan to have family input and communication all throughout our eight week inquiry process.
During the orientation sessions, I encouraged the families to attend, siblings included, and asked the child/children to bring some of their favourite things to talk about. I welcomed their toys, photographs, books, art work, etc. After discussing what they brought with them (so that I could get to know them better), I gave them a tour of the studio and the chance to explore a variety of materials within it. I wanted the children to begin to build a relationship with me and our learning environment. In addition, I wanted the families to see how much I value their children's ideas and to trust me with their care.
Here are some photos of our time together with two families:
One child (age 4.3) even started the simple inquiry of wondering how to make her own flower potion. As she created it she said, "we are being mean to the flowers (referring to the ones that she cut up), but it's like we gave them a haircut!"
Here is what the experience was like:
I look forward to this program, and am not sure why it took me so many years to offer it! Please stay tuned as I share with you what we are learning week to week!
Thank you to the families for signing up and for agreeing to share our moments together on social media, that might have the potential to inspire others!
We life in worlds
our questions create.
-David L. Cooperrider
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