Year 4 - Developing enquiry skills

Year 4 were excited to have Mr Dyson bring the outside world into the classroom this week. The children were able to ask questions about minibeasts and their habitats and gain essential first hand experiences. They used magnifying glasses and trail sheets to identify the characteristics of a range of minbeats such as; spiders, woodlice, beetles and worms. To further their learning the children used their understanding of data handling in Maths, to create a Carroll diagram to compare, sort and categorise them. In order to do this they had to carefully count the number of legs on the minibeasts as they were moving around, which they found very challenging!

Having the minibeasts in the classroom provided us with a fantastic opportunity for children to observe wildlife that they were unfamiliar with and to begin with they were a little cautious and unsure. However, the children were so curious and inquisitive they dived right in and were able to take control of their own learning and gain independence through asking questions and developing their enquiry skills. The children came up with some great questions, see if you can answer them!

“Why do woodlice crawl up in a ball when they are scared?” and “why are spiders hairy?”