Young children are naturally curious and wish to explore their environment. The Friendship School's theme of inquiry builds upon topics that are of interest to the students and offers the opportunity of rich exploration and discovery.
For Ms. Callahan's class's inquiry, her pre-kindergarten students have been learning about different languages and countries around the world. During circle time, the students have been learning how to greet people in about ten different languages. They used maps to put stickers on all of the countries that they learned the greeting.
In the blocks center, Ms. Callahan put out photos of different types of homes that are seen where we live, and then added photos from landmark buildings all around the world. Students put stickers on the maps when they learned about those buildings also.
In addition, the class learned two children's songs in Spanish and English that were taught to them by Spanish speaking families.