[Inquiry Cycle] IB PYP UOI Class Introduction (4-year-old)
Mountain A and B (4 year old class) have finished their Unit of Inquiry (UOI) on sharing the planet and what a ride it was! We used the inquiry cycle to guide our lesson construction and our thinking this time, which created a fantastic environment for questioning and reflecting. We also kept it very hands-on and had a multitude of experiences, allowing the children to engage more deeply and construct their own understanding at their own pace.
Also along the way, the children demonstrated their development of important IB learner profile attributes:
- Caring: Through role-playing, storytelling, and discussions, the children showed empathy toward animals and a strong sense of responsibility for how human actions impact the environment.
- Reflective: They frequently revisited their learning, considering how their actions and ideas connect to larger concepts about sustainability and coexistence.
- Balanced: By participating in a mix of active, collaborative, and individual activities, the children found ways to engage meaningfully with the unit while respecting their own needs and those of others.
Experiences during the early years (3–6-year-olds) lay the foundation for positive social and cognitive learning in future years (McCoy et al. 2017).
The children tuned in to the central idea (plants, animals and humans interact in our shared environment) through a sensory provocation that involved different habitats and the plants and animals that interact within them. From this activity we began discussing what they already know, their feelings and developing questions about what they want to know or what they are interested in. We used our wonder wall to display our questions and to instruct the development of teachers' lessons.
We set about finding out about the central idea through a number of activities. We observed pets and plants in the classroom, we role-played problems that the children observed in the environment, we went on a number of excursions to spark curiosity and we developed our research skills and discussed at length where we can find answers to our questions.
We sorted out by discovering ways to take care of the plants and animals in the classroom and what animals help our environment and how people harmed it. We took pictures at the park and then classified them into living and non-living things. We also looked at different plants and animals and how they connected to particular habitats and each other.
After discovering so much about our environment and the interactions within it, we reflected on what we had learned and discussed how we were going to use this information to go further and share this knowledge with others. The teachers suggested a green screen movie and the children decided on making a story using a green screen and puppets. They learned about the parts of a story and collaborated in groups to make a plan. After putting all the elements together they watched and reflected on their performance and ways to make it better. We invited the grade 2, teachers and school staff class to join us for a movie premier and heard their reflections on the movie also.
This inquiry-based approach not only deepened the children’s understanding of their shared environment but also nurtured critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration. Their journey exemplified the power of the inquiry cycle in fostering meaningful, student-driven learning. And it was a lot of FUN!!!
