Winsome unearths the roots of Kindergarten’s inquiries

This post offers ways to use one text to provoke and reveal children’s inquiries - genuine curiosity, sincere questioning, authentic tension and heartfelt wonderings. 

Just like Winsome, the children in my class have passed their fifth orbit around the sun. Who is Winsome? Let’s find out how she connected Kindergarten to the concept of curiosity, the craft of bookmaking, the mindset of wondering and the magic of imagination -  and unearthed the roots of their inquiries.

The Wonder of Winsome is a picture book recently published by Kath Murdoch, perhaps best known for being a true advocate of inquiry as pedagogy. Winsome, the main character in the text, arrived in book form in Paris recently, pretty much at the same time as I was inquiring into a specific workshop I wanted to attend (which itself led to inquiries about and connections to Paris and Rufus Wainwright!)

What follows is a series of learning opportunities over the course of a week, sparked by Winsome!

What happened	What I learned
I read The Wonder of Winsome to my Kindergarten class. The children loved, as they always do, listening to a story read aloud and did so attentively. They noticed details in the illustrations and made strong connections to the ideas of curiosity and wonder as these are some of the big ideas of our current unit of inquiry.	The children were incredibly observant and noticed subtle details. They made inferences from the text, colours and illustrations, including the fact that the question marks were fading in the water on the front cover - linking to a significant theme in the text. They also wanted time to look more closely and often came up to the book to notice additional features.

What happened

What I learned

I showed the picture above to my class and asked them to imagine what Winsome might be wondering. The children brainstormed their wonderings in small groups, having a printed photo to observe closely. Their wonderings for Winsome were sometimes the same as their own. Their wonderings were broad and included the Eiffel Tower itself (She wonders how the Eiffel Tower sparkles), the night sky (Maybe she is wondering how the moon shines), the character of Winsome (How she will drive by herself and she’s just a book) and the surrounding environment (How does this (gate barrier) work?)

The children took the time to notice so much about the photo and were very quick to put themselves in the shoes of another character. They also applied the language of inquiry we have been using (maybe, wonder). Their wonderings were truly about the unknown and they were comfortable sharing and grappling with uncertainty. I see that (globally) their interests were about how things work. A culture of inquiry was alive in the classroom!

What happened

What I learned

I then invited children to choose their own place for Winsome to be and think about what she might be wondering.

The children’s choices of places were so interesting and revealed different personal connections. The places ranged from home countries and favourite locations to places they had a sense of awe about. Many wonderings were still based on function (how things work), but others were about the materials that objects are made from and why things are the way they are. We also re-read the text before doing this, and I noticed how present and intentional the question marks were in the children’s drawings.

What happened

What I learned

Children were then invited to develop and name their own character, in a setting of their choice, and then ponder on what the character might be wondering. Later, they shared their ‘stories’ with partners.

Given the chance to create their own characters honoured the children’s agency. They took more ownership over their characters as they had to think about personality and physical appearance. Characters included hearts and flowers and children pushed their imaginations to develop these. The variety of colour in these illustrations was dramatically more than the previous character portrayals. Children were also more animated when sharing their characters orally.

What happened

What I learned

The children brainstormed questions to ask Kath Murdoch, the author, but framed in a hypothetical sense: “If you could speak to the author, what would you ask her?”

The children were so keen to brainstorm questions and wonderings and these came quickly to Kindergarten. I anticipated that the children would be asking about the characters, the storyline and the inspiration for the story. Not at all! I was reminded not to push any of my preconceived ideas and allow for the children’s true interests to emerge. They were curious about (and shared theories about) making books - beyond just writing a book. Kindergarten also asked about the colours of words, illustrations and putting pages together.

What happened

What I learned

The next day, I surprised the children with the fact that we were going to Zoom with the author of The Wonder of Winsome. The children could ask the questions they remembered, ask new questions, or be reminded of their wonderings from yesterday. The inquiries focused on how to make a book, how long the book took to make, and, such an interesting question: How do we know Kath really made the book just because her name is written on the cover?

The first child invited to ask a question actually said, “Thank you for writing the book!” I learned from this spontaneous comment what an appreciative reader we have in the class. Sitting behind and besides the children who were asking the questions, I learned how engrossed they were in interviewing and listening to a person they had never met, but connected to through literature. I also learned that through Kath explaining the process of making a book with drafts of illustrations, the children maintained focus and interest for an extended period of time. Due to the question about how we know if the author really wrote the book, Kath used the concept of proof in her reply and then offered several examples of proof. I learned that this level of reflection was something I should continue and was reminded of the power of the question "How do you know?"

What happened

What I learned

Since the main thread of our conversation with Kath was about making books and many of the children were sitting in class in costumes as characters, I then invited the children to make their own books. I pushed their thinking to wonder about what would happen if some of these characters met. The children chose the number of pieces of paper they wanted to fold and sequence into stories. These narratives starred pumpkins, police officers, dragons, mushrooms, Spiderman, pirates, and the Blues Brothers in various forms of interactions and dilemmas.

This invitation of story writing was not part of the original plan connected to Winsome. I was reminded of the importance of a responsive curriculum and seizing moments of rich, authentic and connected learning. In doing so, I was reminded how natural it was to talk about and model conventions of language and narratives (specifically at this time: directionality, illustrations, book titles, sequence…) I also learned that opportunities like these offer chances to learn about page numbers, more explicit discussion about sequencing and specific features such as bar codes that some of the children chose to include).  I also learned a lot more about each child and their confidence and ability to use letters to correspond with the sounds they heard in the words they wanted to write. (Although many children told their stories pictorially).

Concluding thoughts as a result of using an anchor text:

• View inquiry as a process that places questioning at its heart - mindful of and responsive to the doubts, tensions and surprises of learners 

• Know your curriculum - plan for big ideas to be explored intentionally (some planned and others more responsively) 

• Observe and listen to students - to deny their curiosities would be a crime!

• Alongside what children are learning, consider how they are learning - specifically (in this case study) the communication, thinking, research and social skills

• Use literature to invite and provoke students’ thinking and don’t be afraid to ask challenging questions to scaffold and elicit students’ theories and conceptual thinking 

• Offer concrete opportunities for students to grapple with and deepen their understanding of abstract concepts and processes.

So what?

• After reading this blog post, what approaches and practices have been validated for you? What are you inspired to try next week?

• What are the roots of your students' inquiries? Which concepts are they wanting to figure out?

• Through Winsome, it is evident that so many of my class are curious about the book-making process. I need to offer the children different ways and materials to make books of different sizes and types. I need to find some visuals that will provoke and inspire children’s thinking. 

• I see opportunities to build on the children’s interests in numbers and fascination with worms, snails and spiders to invite children to create non-fiction books. Their attention to question marks could lead to interesting inquiries about other punctuation marks.

• Play is an integral part of the children's day and their wonderings about how things work can form the basis for theory building around function. The classroom is full of open-ended materials and loose parts to explore this further.

• The author, Kath Murdoch, has invited other classes around the world through social media to post photographs of her book in their local environments. Winsome has been found here. My class has been very curious about the map on the classroom wall, so I plan to explore the Padlet with the children. 

• An important step in this process is to ask the children themselves - directly - what they think could come next based on this approach to learning. In the spirit of inquiry, I would not be looking for one “best” answer, but instead a menu of possibilities that children could choose from based on their tastes.