This term, students in Year 1/2 have been participating in a HASS Inquiry with Jenny Brooks. Students have been exploring the inquiry question ‘What makes me, who I am?’.  This connects to our whole school HASS focus or ‘Big Idea’- ‘Knowing who we are and how we relate to others allows us to successfully participate in our diverse community.’ 

The inquiry-based learning approach provides opportunities for students to be actively involved in hands-on learning experiences that encourage higher order thinking. Through intentional questioning, research, discussions and interviews our students have been looking at how family life has changed, or stayed the same, over time, and how the past makes us who we are.

Students used a hexagon thinking tool to identify and organise some factors that may have shaped their identity.  Suggesting and exploring the following influences on their lives and contributing to ‘What makes me, who I am?

• family
• friends
• their environment
• personality, culture, and language
• heart and soul
• talents - sport, art, music, experiences
• holidays
• pets
• school

Mrs Brooks also put an Inquiry lens over the school Athletics Carnival. Students worked in collaborative groups to explore the history of our carnivals. They contributed to a whole school bunting that will be on display at the carnival (creating a sense of belonging to their house) and worked together to design a logo which represents the Aboriginal meaning of their house name.

Each class has a ‘Thinking and Learning Floorbook’ which is used to record students' thinking, document their learning and provide evidence for assessment. Parents are most welcome to look through our floorbooks whenever you are in our classrooms.

It will be wonderful to see where this Inquiry work leads us!