What's Happening in Discovery Time

When we are not doing small group guided work or whole group activities we are learning through play and discovering.  This discovery time is wonderful for a number of reasons.  We explore inquiry ideas, practise different skills and consolidate things we are learning.  We often see this consolidation through games of "school" or in the activities that are being chosen.  Have a look at what we've been spending our discovery time doing so far this week. 

This game was one of Doctor.  The girl on the left was the doctor (linking to our inquiry of the body) and she was "diagnosing" her patient using this number chart (consolidating number patterning we've been doing in small groups).  The chart told her how many medicines she would need to take, what foods to eat and how many brothers she would have in the game! The two negotiated the rules, who was playing what role and built on their oral language around a number of different curriculum areas! 

Toy Tuesday and what we do with the Toys

During our discovery time on a Toy Tuesday, our toys are allowed to accompany us in our play.  Here are some great ways kids use their toys in their learning.

These two decided to use one of the toys as a template to make other puppets and to create a scary pop out game using the tubes.  They did all the drawing, designing and creating themselves and then went around playing their game with others.  There was so much innovative thinking happening.  They were measuring, drawing, cutting, trialling and changing.  They had so much fun, created something new and did it all on their own engaged and empowered the whole time.

Playing School

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These guys were playing school.  One of the girls was the teacher and she was showing how to do handwriting on the little whiteboards and then the students practised writing on the big whiteboard.  This was self-chosen and consolidating of the handwriting we had been doing in small groups.  Teaching others is often one of the best ways for us to process and fully learn something. These guys were doing that within their play. 

Discovering around our body inquiry

Searching the room for different body words, having a go at reading them, looking at the picture and practising writing them.

 More Doctor going on near the x-ray machines.  The Doctor is consulting with someone with a broken arm.

Bone X-ray art.  Exploring what the inside of our hand might look like using cotton buds and glue.

And that is just a snip-it of all of the wonderful, self-directed learning that goes on during discovery time through our play!