It isn't Easy Being Green

Our Inquiry context of environmental issues, e.g. pollution was of great interest to my children so was a very successful inquiry unit. We used the define thinking map to understand our topic of It isn't Easy Being Green. By using the define map, we could write a definition of our topic. From this process questions were developed. Children used SOLO to develop substaintial questions that they wanted to know about.
I had identified from the previous term's inquiry that the majorityof my children were struggling with the understanding of information. Children weren't skimming and scanning information and using keywords. So when asked to find information, I focussed on using book reference material rather than computer generated information. I was then able to focus and teach these skills to my children. By using books I found that once the children had skimmed and scanned information and wrote down the keywords, the books were put away and so information couldn't be copied. Children then used comic life to present their work and this can be viewed on our classroom blog. We also used podomatic again this term, so that we could consolidate what ICT skills we used last term.