Playful inquiry is for all learners. It allows students to be open, curious and playful. As educators when we set up engaging materials that are inviting, students are motivated to learn. As mentioned by Susan Harris Mackay, in "The Principals of Playful Inquiry", a curious mind is an alert mind, one that is primed for learning (Mackay, 2010). Playful Inquiry is setting up inviting materials and believing that the power of play is an activator in learning. Students are collaborating, connecting and playing. Students need time to explore and play. Susan states "Classroom environments should encourage children to become lost in their play, and adults to let them (Mackay, 2010)." Children are naturally curious and capable. I have a multi-aged classroom (Grade 4, 5 & 6). Playful Inquiry allows me to differentiate for all learners in the room. As a teacher I have spent time collaborating with Jennifer Barker our districts numeracy helping teacher. We have spent time co-planning and teaching through playful inquiry. I have seen student engagement increase, collaboration about numerical concepts and understanding improve just through play. Students are connecting at many different levels and our classroom community bond continues to grow as we learn to explore and play together.
How am I documenting the learning? I am able to document the learning through taking anecdotal notes and listening. I can take videos and photos. All of these combined with student work samples, and exit slips provide formative assessment. Based on this information we are able to plan subsequent lessons that build on what the students know. Formative assessment can include the following: ticket out the door activities, conversations as students are working at a station, journalling and through student reflections on inquiry questions. You might think, do I just let students play. The answer is yes, at first we let students explore with diverse range of materials such as math manipulative's, books, pictures and diverse objects. Next, students have choice in which math station they want to go to. Once they reach a math station they have guiding questions at that station set up by the teacher on what they are working on. The learning for students is based on all our core competencies (communication, thinking and personal & social). Students are learning through doing, playing and reflecting.
A few examples of what we have done through a Fraction Unit:
Materials used: Cuisenaire blocks, transparent fraction circles, erasers in different shapes (butterfly, frog and insects), cuisenaire block strips for white boards with magnets on the back, fraction themed books, The Lion's Share book, asking every student to bring a photo, square blocks, coloured shape blocks, ticket out the door sheets and variety of worksheets with guiding questions/diagrams and activities to support learning.
Examples of Activities Below:
Talking Points- This helped us see where we are and where we need to go. Talking points allow students to communicate their understanding of numerical concepts. In our case we were working on Fraction talking points.
Exploration- Students had choice in visiting math stations. Every station contained an inquiry question. (cuisenaire blocks, transparent fraction circles, erasers in different shapes (butterfly, frog and insects), fraction themed books etc.)
Literacy Connection- We read the book "The Lion's Share" as a class. We used our Reading Power Strategy of inferring prior to reading to take predictions on what this book might be about. Next, story time!
Fraction Activity: We had 8 x 8 pink square pieces of paper that symbolized the cake in the story. I read the story a second time and students had to fold their square piece of paper as all the animals begin to take a 'piece' of the cake.
Reflection Question: What did you notice happened to the equal pieces of cake? Can you connect this to fractions?
Playful Inquiry- We put cuisenaire blocks on tables for students to play with. Students needed this time to build, create and explore. Some students had never used cuisenaire blocks before. This was a great opportunity for them to have no guided instructions and allow them to explore.
Follow up activity: Using Cuisenaire fraction block strips with magnets on the board, we asked students to consider the relationship between the rods when different colours were the "whole." Students were given time and space to explore the relationships that existed within the rods.
Inquiry Question: If the orange cuisenaire block represents a whole, and the red block was a 'part' how many red blocks would it take to complete the whole? What is the fraction name for this part? Now, If the brown cuisenaire block represents a whole and the red block was a part how many red blocks would it take to complete the whole? yellow? etc. Pick another two colours on your own to explore.
Ticket out the door question: "Micheal says the red rod is always 1/4. Do you agree or disagree?" Explain your thinking"
Making connections to math and our personal world- Take a look at the family photo/sports photo you have brought with you to school. What is the fraction of those wearing hats? A fraction for those who have Brown eyes in your photo? (You can be very creative with photos). Students can see many different relationships with fractions in mind. They see fractions as representations of a set or a group.
All in all, I have seen students motivated and excited about playful inquiry in numeracy. All students at various levels are able to participate. If Playful Inquiry can work in a multi-aged setting (grade 4, 5 and 6) it can work for you! The reason it works is because their is an entry point for all learners. Learning can be differentiated and each student can work to their potential. I am very excited to continue to explore and document student learning through a playful inquiry platform of learning.
A BIG thank you to Jennifer Barker for allowing me to vision my numeracy lessons with excitement, engagement, motivation and growth as we continue to explore through a playful inquiry approach. Jenn's blog contains many rich resources for all teachers to use as they dive into playful inquiry. You can visit her blog by going to: http://www.meaningfulmathmoments.com/
Article Referenced: The Principles of Playful Inquiry By Susan Harris Mackay 2010:
file:///Users/guestaccess/Downloads/The%20Principles%20of%20Playful%20Inquiry%20updated%202018.pdf
Children have real understanding only of that which they invent themselves, and each time that we try to teach them too quickly we keep them from reinventing it themselves. - Piaget
How am I documenting the learning? I am able to document the learning through taking anecdotal notes and listening. I can take videos and photos. All of these combined with student work samples, and exit slips provide formative assessment. Based on this information we are able to plan subsequent lessons that build on what the students know. Formative assessment can include the following: ticket out the door activities, conversations as students are working at a station, journalling and through student reflections on inquiry questions. You might think, do I just let students play. The answer is yes, at first we let students explore with diverse range of materials such as math manipulative's, books, pictures and diverse objects. Next, students have choice in which math station they want to go to. Once they reach a math station they have guiding questions at that station set up by the teacher on what they are working on. The learning for students is based on all our core competencies (communication, thinking and personal & social). Students are learning through doing, playing and reflecting.
A few examples of what we have done through a Fraction Unit:
Materials used: Cuisenaire blocks, transparent fraction circles, erasers in different shapes (butterfly, frog and insects), cuisenaire block strips for white boards with magnets on the back, fraction themed books, The Lion's Share book, asking every student to bring a photo, square blocks, coloured shape blocks, ticket out the door sheets and variety of worksheets with guiding questions/diagrams and activities to support learning.
Examples of Activities Below:
Talking Points- This helped us see where we are and where we need to go. Talking points allow students to communicate their understanding of numerical concepts. In our case we were working on Fraction talking points.
Exploration- Students had choice in visiting math stations. Every station contained an inquiry question. (cuisenaire blocks, transparent fraction circles, erasers in different shapes (butterfly, frog and insects), fraction themed books etc.)
Literacy Connection- We read the book "The Lion's Share" as a class. We used our Reading Power Strategy of inferring prior to reading to take predictions on what this book might be about. Next, story time!
Fraction Activity: We had 8 x 8 pink square pieces of paper that symbolized the cake in the story. I read the story a second time and students had to fold their square piece of paper as all the animals begin to take a 'piece' of the cake.
Reflection Question: What did you notice happened to the equal pieces of cake? Can you connect this to fractions?
Playful Inquiry- We put cuisenaire blocks on tables for students to play with. Students needed this time to build, create and explore. Some students had never used cuisenaire blocks before. This was a great opportunity for them to have no guided instructions and allow them to explore.
Follow up activity: Using Cuisenaire fraction block strips with magnets on the board, we asked students to consider the relationship between the rods when different colours were the "whole." Students were given time and space to explore the relationships that existed within the rods.
Inquiry Question: If the orange cuisenaire block represents a whole, and the red block was a 'part' how many red blocks would it take to complete the whole? What is the fraction name for this part? Now, If the brown cuisenaire block represents a whole and the red block was a part how many red blocks would it take to complete the whole? yellow? etc. Pick another two colours on your own to explore.
Ticket out the door question: "Micheal says the red rod is always 1/4. Do you agree or disagree?" Explain your thinking"
Making connections to math and our personal world- Take a look at the family photo/sports photo you have brought with you to school. What is the fraction of those wearing hats? A fraction for those who have Brown eyes in your photo? (You can be very creative with photos). Students can see many different relationships with fractions in mind. They see fractions as representations of a set or a group.
All in all, I have seen students motivated and excited about playful inquiry in numeracy. All students at various levels are able to participate. If Playful Inquiry can work in a multi-aged setting (grade 4, 5 and 6) it can work for you! The reason it works is because their is an entry point for all learners. Learning can be differentiated and each student can work to their potential. I am very excited to continue to explore and document student learning through a playful inquiry platform of learning.
A BIG thank you to Jennifer Barker for allowing me to vision my numeracy lessons with excitement, engagement, motivation and growth as we continue to explore through a playful inquiry approach. Jenn's blog contains many rich resources for all teachers to use as they dive into playful inquiry. You can visit her blog by going to: http://www.meaningfulmathmoments.com/
Article Referenced: The Principles of Playful Inquiry By Susan Harris Mackay 2010:
file:///Users/guestaccess/Downloads/The%20Principles%20of%20Playful%20Inquiry%20updated%202018.pdf
Children have real understanding only of that which they invent themselves, and each time that we try to teach them too quickly we keep them from reinventing it themselves. - Piaget