Let’s begin with a story. A year 2(senior kindergarten) student enters the outdoor classroom on the first day of school with his mom smiling quietly behind him. His first words are, “Look Mrs Max. I found a worm in my peach pit at breakfast. I wonder why he’s in there?” Some might think, he didn’t even say hi to his teacher, but what his mom and I both know is that her child continues to develop curiosity and wonder about the world. He’s in tune with his environment and has a hunger to learn. This blog post is an opportunity for us to share our intentional teaching moves to cultivate this culture of curiosity and wonder.
Children are born innately curious and somewhere along the way they are given less opportunity to use these skills and more opportunity to memorize and recite information. In an age where information is free our world is starting to place value in skills that reach beyond facts. Ontario’s Kindergarten Curriculum is an example where we promote curiosity. Not only is the document built around the belief that children are innately curious, competent and capable of complex thinking, but the word curiosity itself is present in the document 33 times. We are now seeing educators grabbing onto these pedagogies and how it is catching steam beyond kindergarten with inquiry-based learning and the 21st Century Competencies. We are also seeing a shift in the role of educator from being the keeper of knowledge to facilitating learning.
http://www.edugains.ca/resources21CL/About21stCentury/21CL_21stCenturyCompetencies.pdf)
Children were offered photos from their interests outdoors and encouraged to represent their thinking through art with clay and oral language.
Intentional Teaching Moves that Stimulate Curiosity and Wonder
In our class we strive to kindle sparks of curiosity, stimulate wonder, and provoke children’s thinking throughout the day.
Build Relationships and a Community of Inquirers
- Be curious about the children and the unique gifts and skills they possess
- Model valuing and honouring the viewpoints of others(i.e., Write down children’s inquiries at their level, have children share their curiosity to the group, add documentation of their learning at the provocation itself)
- Ask families to share photos of children’s interest from home(i.e., family trips, bird nest built on their deck, ants discovered in the basement, turtle eggs in the side of the road)
- Instead of Show and Tell, consider a Mystery Bag where children are encouraged to bring an artefact that is special to their family(i.e., postcard, creation from a relative, cultural instrument). Have children share 3 clues about the item and encourage the class to guess.
- Share learning through digital platforms with families and invite their learning(i.e., Seesaw, Fresh Grade, Google platforms(Keep, Docs, Slides)
Child-led interest inspired this little to represent her learning about clouds based on what she noticed from an experiment.
Evidence from diverse fields of study tells us that children grow in programs where adults are caring and responsive. Children succeed in programs that focus on active learning through exploration, play, and inquiry. Children thrive in programs where they and their families are valued as active participants and contributors.
From How Does Learning Happen? (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2014c, p. 4)
Flow of the day and Being Responsive to Interest-Led Learning
- Curiosity is encouraged the moment children arrive in our outdoor classroom. We often ask the children, “What do you want to learn about?” as we trek and play around the forested area.
- We begin our day outdoors with materials that can inspire curiosity and innovation(i.e., magnifying glasses, clipboards, bug jars and nets, binoculars, recycle materials to build with, etc. Some use a wonder wagon. We’ve used an Outdoor Learning Toolkit. This provides opportunity to explore and wonder. When we enter the class we share our wonderings in a Knowledge Building Circle.
- If you are in the city and not close to a forest consider having a no-moe zone. We’ve asked our custodian to leave a spot on the yard that he will not moe to allow creatures and plants to grow naturally. We’ve learned about this idea from Passionately Curious Educators.
- Before we go off to play and learn indoors we ask children for their plan for play and learning. This often gives us insights into their interests.
- Offer a knowledge building circle time to delve more deeply into inquiries and a sharing time to communicate learning thus far.
Children’s interests in frogs and toads came from finding a toad outdoors. This led to wondering about how they grew and the different sizes and kinds.
Encourage Inquiry & Questioning
- Let their curiosity take the stage and lead the learning
- Curiosity takes courage. Inspire children to take a leap and share their wonderings. Celebrate when a child uses the language, “I wonder”. Everyone has an entry point to curiosity.
- Have a place where their wonderings are recorded. Some teams create a wonder wall.
- Consider using QR codes for children to listen to their wonderings and thinking
- Embrace multiple inquiries at one time
- Value all views
- Encourage children to think about how they will research their wondering(i.e., draw what they notice, watch a video, ask an expert)
Language of Curiosity
- Model inquiring and questioning skills and allow for think time. We say “I wonder” a million times a day. When children notice something or ask questions, we repeat their question beginning with “I wonder”. For example, the child may say, “There’s ants in the hole”. Educator may say, “I wonder how the ants got in the hole?” If the child says, “How are the clouds moving?”, the educator may say, “Hm… I wonder how the clouds are moving?” Give the child some think time so they can develop their own theories before asking questions that provoke further thinking like, “I wonder if there’s anything that can help the clouds move?” Adults often jump in and tell children the answers for them. We believe this communicates to the child that the adult holds the information and the child should listen and recite. Instead, we encourage the children to develop critical thinking skills by asking provoking questions and allowing think time. We believes this honours the child’s ability to make conjectures, predictions and theories about the world themselves.
- Be genuinely curious about the world yourself. Model curiosity and learn alongside the children. “How do you want to learn about that?”
Environment as the Third Teacher
- Co-create provocations that support student’s interests and curiosities
- Students should be able to see their interests, thinking, and passions reflected in the environment surrounding them
- Use rich materials that encourage deeper thinking based on interest-led learning
- Consider using loose parts and open-ended learning materials where children can
- Document the interactions the children have with each other and the materials at these provocations
- Share documentation at relevant locations in the room. Offer the documentation to the child as an opportunity to reflect on their prior thinking.
Children started making treasure maps and hunts outdoors and we furthered their curiosities with the addition of sticks, arrows, map making, and stories.
Embrace failure
- When children are curious about their innovations they have a positive outlook on learning, ability to take risks, and have a growth mindset. Their curiosity will continue to burn as long as the spark is fanned, but can be extinguished by the idea that failure is negative.
Learning Goals and Success Criteria
I’ve noticed over the years of being a kindergarten teacher that some children communicate their curiosity through inquiry and others through innovation. Below are some learning goals and success criteria that we use in Kindergarten that support the Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum through both inquiry and innovation.
DEVELOPING INQUIRING SKILLS
I am learning to inquire about the world.
- I can ask questions about my interest and experiences.
- I can ask questions to clarify.
- I can ask questions to compare information.
- I can identify and clarify issues, and compare information.
- I can ask who, what, when, where, why, and how questions.
- I can share my reflections.
- I can use specialized vocabulary.
- I can wonder and inquire about the world.
- I can describe patterns and cycles of the natural world and show my understanding.
- I can make observations about things I see.
- I can investigate how things work.
- I can explore and share a variety of tools and materials to carry out explorations.
- I can pose questions and make predictions.
- I can use problem solving skills effectively.
- I can investigate properties of materials.
- I can sort, classify, and share my findings.
DEVELOPING INNOVATION & CREATIVITY SKILLS
I am developing my creativity.
- I get ideas when I play.
- I get ideas when I use my senses to explore. I make my ideas work or change what I am doing.
- I can get new ideas, build on the ideas of others, and add ideas of my own. My ideas are useful and I feel a sense of accomplishment.
- I can generate new ideas, re-imagine ideas.
- I can take risks in my decision-making.
- I build the skills I need to make my ideas work.
- I can persevere, expect failure, ambiguity, and use them to advance my thinking.
Open-Ended Questions to Promote Curiosity
- What do you already know about…?
- How do you think you could find out more about…?
- What might you say about how it feels, smells, looks, and sounds?
- What do you notice/observe/remember/predict?
- What does this mean to you?
- What does this remind you of?
- What are you still figuring out?
- What have you learned?
- What do you still wonder about?
- What are you picturing?
- What else would you like to learn about?
- Tell me about…
- How do you feel about?
- What would happen if you…?
- What would happen if?
- How else might you solve the problem?
- How do you know?
- What did you discover while solving this problem?
As we continue to create and maintain indoor and outdoor learning environments that promote curiosity we look to each other, students, educators, and families, to deepen our curiosity and sense of wonder through our shared experiences.
inspired by play 
