Inquiring Minds is delighted to share this insightful post from one of Richland’s Prekindergarten teachers, Mrs. Lisa Abreu.

A pencil, a ‘Writing book’ and an iPad set the scene for a child’s discovery to unfold.  As he opened his book to a piece of unfinished work, B. sat and looked at his white page.

The initial composition began during an investigation with the JK children, but no longer held the same relevance to B. today.  B. shared, “I do not want to draw snails.”  I pondered for a moment and responded with, “What would you like to sketch, today?”  He thought for a moment, gazing out the window and shared, “A house!”  With the iPad as our learning tool, I wrote the word, ‘house’ on a sticky note.  B. eagerly typed each letter to search for his chosen model.  He scrolled up and down the page filled with hundreds of photos of houses.  He stopped and pointed to his chosen structure.  He excitedly commented, “This house has lots of squares and rectangles. I want to sketch this one.” He immediately began sketching, looking back and forth at his model, pointing to each shape, as he eagerly drew his picture.  He then proudly revealed his ‘best’ work by sharing that, “My house has shapes. I see a square, triangle and rectangle.” A learning moment was captured of a drawing with a purposeful story, chosen by the child and not by the teacher.  The child connected his drawing to the unfolding classroom inquiry on shapes.  This Leaning moment prompted observational drawing, emergent literacy, and mathematics unfolding because of an interest shared by a child.