Memories of a kindergarten airplane inquiry: “What are airplanes like?”
During our previous inquiry about gems, we wrote a letter to a pilot to ask for a helicopter ride to a volcano. Although he couldn’t take us to a volcano, the pilot sent us a package of airplane postcards, stickers, and pilot wings, along with photos of helicopters and airplanes! Everyone was THRILLED. A student said, “We should do an airplane inquiry!” Amber and I had already noticed that many of our students were becoming fascinated with airplanes because they’d recently been making Lego helicopters and jets, but the gifts and photos from the pilot really turned up the excitement factor. Thus began a six-week-long inquiry about airplanes, during which time we had SO much fun transforming our classroom into an airport and playing and learning as much as we could about planes. As always, at the get-go, we filled our book baskets with fiction and nonfiction books about airplanes. Based on what students saw in the books and what they knew from personal experience, they created...