The Alphabet Inquiry
Tuning In (for the Prep Learners)
As thinkers, what do you notice about this collection of corks?
“Big and small”, “letters”, “Capital letters”, “little ones”, “upper case and lowercase letters!”
What might these boxes represent?
“That’s ‘A’ ”, “that’s zzz... ” (pause) “It’s the alphabet!”
The Problem: Sorting out.
Miss Pearce explained to the Preps that she had placed the first and last letters of the alphabet in their right boxes but ran out of time to do the rest. The Preps were eager to help. Mrs. Sparshott helped the Preps work together as collaborators, to complete the alphabox. Miss Pearce worked with the Kinders to match the collection of classroom objects with their beginning sounds.
Going Further
As collaborators, The Kinders and Preps worked together to complete the alphabox puzzle by matching the objects with their beginning sounds. As self-mangers, they persisted when feeling challenged and solved their own problems by asking questions like researchers do. The Prep learners showed great leadership when helping the Kinder students to match their objects with their beginning sounds. It was wonderful to watch our Early Years learners supporting each other‘s learning rather than taking over it (if they already knew the answer).
Making Conclusions
-How did our learning assets help us to solve the alphabox problem together?
-Which letters/sounds do you know well? Which letters/sounds do you need more practise with?
-What could we add and/or change to help our learning grow?
Taking Action
- As a communicator, how and when might the alphabox table support your learning this year?