In the warm spring of early April, students of each class are continuing their own class projects with many interesting and fun learning activities. Here at House of Knowledge, the inquiry-based and theme-related project learning is one of the most main and important methodologies that we apply in daily teaching approach for the students. Our professional and talented teachers help and guide students to discover and explore the world around them by creating an engaging and exploratory classroom environment that inspires and stimulates young minds to discover, think, collaborate, and explore with their great curiosities and desire to figure out the infinite questions they may have in their minds.
Our Pre-K Apple class was introduced to the topic of Dinosaurs recently! One day in the morning circle, teacher Riley asked the children if they have noticed anything different in the classroom – the children excitedly pointed out many new things they have spotted since they entered the classroom that day: “I saw a new dinosaur door!”; I saw vines in the class!”; “I saw fossils, dinosaur costumes, and the plushie dinosaur toys!”……The children were so excited to explore the new classroom settings and their desire and interest was totally ignited. Now the “Dinosaur” project officially kicks off!
What Are the Characteristics of Dinosaurs?
Firstly, children were eager to know and have a clear idea of what a dinosaur is. In the morning circle time, Teacher Riley brought a “Dinosaur Egg” to the class! The students were very excited to listen to the “dinosaur egg”, feel it, touch it, and shake it very gently and passed the “dinosaur egg” to each other in the “Sensory Learning” area of the classroom. We also had lots of fun discovering the dinosaur shadow puppets- we experimented using light and shadow to make dinosaurs bigger/smaller and movement.
At House of Knowledge, the classroom is divided into several learning areas for the students such as “Sensory Area” and “Art Area”. This builds the students’ understanding and sensory towards how a “dinosaur egg” feels like and get to learn how a dinosaur was born. Children learn to describe and point out their feelings and learn relevant vocabulary as well. We had a new friend join us for morning circle, a Velociraptor! The class decided to call him their favorite English word “Cushion” and invite him to join every morning circle.
Can I Ask Dinosaurs a Question?
In the Reggio Emilia world, there are infinite questions to explore and children want to get answers by trying to figure things out in different ways. At House of Knowledge, we encourage children to ask questions all the time. In the Dinosaur project, the students practiced asking questions to each other and then they all came up with an idea for a question that they would like to ask a dinosaur. After the discussion, the children made their own question cards! They looked at books and toys for inspiration and drew their favorite dinosaurs.
That afternoon, Pre-K Apple class had a special surprise! Terry the T-rex came to visit the class and so the students were able to ask all the amazing questions they thought of and curious to know about in the morning! The students asked their questions such as “can a dinosaur climb?” and then Terry the T-rex would try to climb. It was such a fun and great way to put the questions into practice and to figure out the truth by exploring and inquiring independently and as a class.
House of Knowledge is always a fun place to learn. Making learning interesting and full of laughter ensures a memorable learning practice for the students when they grow up.
From Making Hypothesis to Taking Hands-On Activities!
Children asked the question “What happened to the dinosaurs?” and this led to the class having a very hot discussion and the students came to conclude two theories: 1) Many volcanoes exploded and an ash cloud covered the sun, so the dinosaurs died. 2) A meteor hit the Earth causing dust to rise and cover the sun causing the dinosaurs to die.
The children said that they think both theories are true – A meteor hit the Earth and caused the volcanoes to erupt! After the discussion, the teachers laid out three activities related to these theories that students came up with.
01: Test the Impact: Children used a meteor to throw towards the Earth and Dinosaurs to see how big the impact had to be for all the dinosaurs to die.
02:Volcano Parts Observation.
03:Making a Volcano.
At House of Knowledge, we cover a wide range of exploration and learning, including sensory, language, art, physical development, mental development, and with many other subjects combined in each project that students work on. With the immersive and genuine multi-language learning environment, students are gaining precious and memorable learning experiences every day at House of Knowledge and are learning from multi-dimensional level. Our “Digging Dinosaur” project is continuing, and we look forward to sharing with you more in near future!
