We started our money inquiry today and it went fantastic! I began with putting out a large piece of paper for the students to jot down what they know about money. Some drew pictures, some wrote the names of the coins, a few were drawing addition facts with coins.
Then I put out the materials and told them they could explore with them and that later we would come back and add to our chart about what they know about money. The materials I put out were: cash registers, coins, money stamps and stamp pads, pretend food, paper and markers.
They had a blast and I made a lot of great observations and got a ton of pedagogical documentation (really…I just wanted to use the word pedagogical). It was interesting to watch the students using the materials in different ways. Many were playing store, a couple made up a tic tac toe type game using different money amounts, some were counting the coins and grouping them and some were stamping the coins and adding them up. Talking with the kiddos while they were playing gave me so much insight into their learning and what they already know. Now I can plan the rest of our learning around this information.
Is anyone else using an inquiry based learning approach in their class? Care to share your experiences?
