Healthy Schools Network Story Template
Date: June 26, 2015
School Name: Anmore Elementary School
School District: SD43 (Coquitlam)
Contact Name: Camy Ng
Contact Email/Phone Number: cng@sd43.bc.ca
Did you receive an Activity Grant or an Inquiry Grant?
Both
PART 1: Tell us about the learners at your school. (Gathering Evidence/Scanning)
(E.g. what did you notice about the experience of your learners that was most important to your work?
Are you a rural, urban or new school?)
I have a kindergarten class of 18 students. Of the 18 students, there are 11 males and 7 females.
There are a number of students with severe separation anxiety, general anxiety, behaviour issues,
and speech and language difficulties.
Anmore is a very small school, with a student population of approximately 147. Being situated in
“the forest”, Anmore receives its clientele from the communities of Anmore and Belcarra. Within
these communities are families from all socio-economic levels. Amongst the large residential
compounds, there are large segments of middle-class and needy families who make up our
catchment population.
PART 2: What did you do? (Focus and Plan, New Learning)
(What keys areas of health and learning did you focus on? What were your driving questions? What
contributed to the need to address health and learning at your school? What did you do to make things
better? What tools/resources did you use?)
My project topic: “How can we promote student inquiry using a Reggio Emelia approach and
providing provocations to further students' questioning?”
My students this year were a curious bunch who wondered about many things in the world. Here
are some of their inquiries:
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*This template is adapted from the Spiral of Inquiry (www.noii.ca)
- A.T – Investigating planets and ants (types of ants and ant bites, in particular); Why do tigers have
big teeth?; I wonder why lions are good at hunting?; Use of a compass
- A.N. – How are schools constructed?; I wonder how robots can talk; I want to know why penguins
can’t fly; How do Pokémon evolve?
- K.L. – How do turtles grow?; What are giraffe necks good for?; I want to know how marbles get
made; Who would win – killer whale vs. shark?; I want to know how fast a cheetah runs
- S.W. – How do owls build nests?; I want to learn about unicorns; I wonder how zebras get babies
- T.C. and O.B. - Where do dinosaur fossils come from?
- O.B. – I want to learn about ‘Charizard’; Can cougars can see in the dark?; I wonder how we live for
a long time
- R.N. – How a “Stinky Fish” (a bad friend) can turn into a “Rainbow Fish” (a good friend); How to
make all the calendars in the world; How do Pokémon win?
- R.W. – Study flowers; Why do horses, cheetahs, and tigers run fast?
- R.G. – Where do foxes live?; What do hockey players wear?; Why do bullfrogs croak?; I wonder
how I roller skate
- T.P. – How do professional artists paint?; When were skates invented?; figure skating fashions;
figure skater Sonja Henie; Tarantula’s exoskeleton; vegetables and fruits
- C.M. – How do birds build nests?; cougars; rocks and minerals; How do birds make babies?
- C.C. – How do tarantulas move?; What is the fastest animal?; I want to know why lions roar so loud
- J.J. – Why do wolves howl?; How do frogs leap?; I want to learn about unicorns
- J.B. – I want to know about the different parts of Canada; I want to learn how to make chalk
- L.S. – What do tigers eat?; How big are tigers?
- M.B. – How do cheetah cubs live?
- N.C. – How do squids see?; How do Pokémon battle?; I wonder how hockey was made?; Who made
hockey?; I wonder how people are born; I want to learn about the rules of soccer
- T.G. – I wonder how fast a tiger can run?; How do monkeys talk?
- T.C. – How do we dig up dinosaurs?; I want to learn about a volcano; I wonder why the dinosaurs
died out?
The focus of the inquiry questions came directly from the children, mostly in the words of the
children. Sometimes I would tweak their wording so it made more sense.
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*This template is adapted from the Spiral of Inquiry (www.noii.ca)
PART 3: How did it go? (Taking Action)
(E.g. What actions or strategies did you decide on? Who was involved? What type of support did you
gather? How were students involved? What new areas of professional learning did you explore? What
difference did this make for students and the school community? How did this impact students’
learning?)
I did my own inquiry by trying a Reggio Emilia approach to inquiry and questioning with students.
I created “inquiry cubbies” for each of them, a small cubicle shelf where they can put their inquiry
duotang to record their research and findings, and research materials. I borrowed picture books
from our school library, my personal collection of books, and the Terry Fox Library (Fraser Valley
Regional Library) for each of them, related to their inquiry topic(s). I also provided provocations
for them in their cubbies to excite them, encourage them to continue their inquiry, and invoke more
questioning. These included dinosaur and food flashcards, art materials, manipulatives, and a clay
volcano.
I interviewed students one-on-one to find out the topics they wanted to learn about and the
questions they had about the world. I would then obtain the resources and materials necessary to
assist them with their inquiry process. I would then put out these provocations as a display or put
materials in their inquiry cubbies to engage students further and aid them in their research. After
students have had a chance to look through the picture books in their cubbies during reading time, I
would interview them again one-on-one. We would review the question that they had (sometimes
students tweak the question themselves), I would read the relevant section(s) of the picture
book(s) to find the answer, if possible. After reading, I would interview the student about what we
discovered, what are their thoughts, conclusions, or findings related to their question. We found
out that sometimes we couldn’t answer the question and that’s ok because that’s what science is
about. It’s about being curious, experimenting, and trying to find out more.
I was fortunate to have 10 speakers come in to do presentations for our class. They chatted on
topics students were interested in (e.g. scientist presenting on fossils and dinosaurs, pilot to discuss
flying, firefighter to discuss their job and fire safety; RCMP to discuss safety; scientist presenting on
habitats and food webs).
I documented the entire inquiry process by taking pictures and videos of the individual inquiry
projects. I interviewed students and scribe their reflection on their research as well documented
their ideas and learning process. I also took videos of their reflection and uploaded all pictures and
videos to their freshgrade e-portfolios to share with parents. Parents were very excited about
students’ inquiries and enjoyed seeing their learning on freshgrade. Many inquiries continued at
home with the support of parents. To aid this transition, I sent home students’ inquiry duotangs at
the end of the year. I also created a section in my new report card template to include their inquiry
findings and their topics for future inquiry.
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*This template is adapted from the Spiral of Inquiry (www.noii.ca)
PART 4: What are your reflections and how can you build on your efforts? (Reflect & Evaluate)
(E.g. what change was evident? What did you use as a baseline for evidence of change? What did you
learn from the inquiry? What is most important for you to learn to build on your efforts to sustain
changes for your students and in your school? What advice do you have for others?)
If I were to do this again, I would definitely invite more speakers into our room to do presentations
on students’ topics of inquiry. It takes a great deal of coordination but it’s worth it to see the
progression of learning in the students and the sparks of interest from other kids as well.
I think that sharing students’ inquiry with parents through their e-portfolios was very effective and
extending the learning home. The videos were a great tool because scribing for each child is timeconsuming and the videos served the same purpose.
Personalizing the inquiry to each individual student was amazing! I took a big risk there because I
know teachers who do one topic as a class but I really wanted to give students a chance to explore
topics that they wanted to know about, not a topic that one child in the class wanted to know about.
It was a lot of work to get picture books from the public library for each student, a lot of carting
back and forth, chasing my kids for the books later on, and returning books (sometimes late!), etc.
However, the big smiles and excited faces when students saw they had new “inquiry books” was
awesome! Also, to have kids come to you and request to do their “investigations” is inspiring!
Thank you HSN for making this project possible. You have helped to inspire 18 budding scientists!
Please share this story on the Healthy Schools BC Stories Map. Remember to share pictures and/or
videos too!
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*This template is adapted from the Spiral of Inquiry (www.noii.ca)