Following the formation of the three interest groups created in Term 1, the maker group started to explore our inquiry question “How can we look after our environments and make them better?”. Our discussions led us to discovering new ways to improve our learning spaces.
The maker group was divided into 5 interest groups; pictures, windows, decorations, statues and picnic rug. Each group took part in research on Google Images to gain insight into different designs that might inspire them.
Once they obtained a series of images, the students built a mood board displaying all their findings.
From there, we revisited our inquiry question to help unpack it further and understand the meaning behind “we” in the question. As we investigated ourselves as a “we” we learnt that together as a group we make a community. This led to asking the broader question, how well do we know our community?
We decided the best way to do this is to get to know each other, which built upon our communication skills such as listening and asking open-ended questions. To develop a range of open-ended questions, we explored the 5W’s: Who? What? When? Where? Why?
Our findings included (although they were not all open questions to begin with):
- What do you like to do on the weekend?
- Do you play an instrument?
- How many pets do you have?
- What are some special things you do with your family?
Students interviewed one another to experience getting to know each other. Following the discussion, the students were asked what they think could be some questions they may want to ask the broader Prep community to get to know them better.
We explored the questions we built only to find we had far too many to choose from. So, we decided to vote for our favourite questions in order to narrow it down. We documented the findings through a graph.
After we decided on the questions, we agreed to make a documentary featuring some of the Prep community. We revisited the term community and students watched a range of short documentaries featuring children being interviewed.
Students were reorganised into 3 groups to encourage diverse interaction. Their task was to decide which setting they would like, their preferred question and which roles they would each take on during film time.
Some of the roles discussed included:
- Pressing record (button presser)
- Lighting
- Make-up
- Setting
With the documentary well under way and the students having gained a better understanding of community. We returned to our mood boards to gain some inspiration on how we can now better our environments knowing our community that little bit better.
We brainstormed festivals and how they play a apart in decorating a space. We explored how our environment would look if we created a community festival. We drew up some ideas which are now in the process of being created.