Imaginative Inquiry

This month's inquiry has been focused on a restaurant theme. We have a kitchen in the dramatic play area for the student to explore the different roles associated with a restaurant. We have also incorporated talk about food groups and healthy eating. I try to set aside at least 30 minutes per day to play in this area and prompt their thinking on numbers and literacy.

 After some brainstorming and voting, we decided to name our restaurant JKA Cafe. We sell sandwiches, pizza, cupcakes, juice, milk, and coffee (for Ms. Whitney).

 I brought in different take-out menus from local restuarants. We talked about what the different words and numbers represent and then I encouraged students to create their own menus for JKA Cafe. Some students drew pictures of menu items, some students included labeling of the items, while others should their ideas through words.

This is an example of a student drawing my order of pizza. 

I created name tags for students to wear when exploring the different roles. This prevented students from arguing over roles and helped them to stick to their role. 

We are planning on furthering our explorations through a field trip. I hope to focus more on role play and prompting students for deeper learning into our inquiry this week. I think our special activity which includes cream, milk and sugar should spark their interest....