Spicewood Elementary School Our campus has been fortunate to see many new changes this school year. From our new Teaching Garden, to the transformation of our science lab into an Inquiry Lab, our teachers, leadership, students, and PTA have been collaboratively working together throughout the year to create spaces on our campus that support and encourage a inquiry based teaching and learning. Let’s take a look!
Kindergarten Makerspace in our Inquiry Lab. Flexible seating allows students to move throughout the space freely. The Inquiry lab is a creative space for students to engage in some hands on exploration.
Our Teaching Garden provides a meeting space outdoors for our Kinder/5th Grade buddies to read with one another.
Fourth grade students use the Teaching Garden in their Sharing the Planet unit of inquiry.
The Atrium provides a flexible space for students to be inspired to create art or in this case learn more about the Design Process by solving real world problems. Some students are working on developing informational signs for our Atrium, providing its visitors with new information about the plants in this unique space.
An example of a bulletin board in a classroom that’s rich with text, student questions & connections, and other “snapshots” of learning experiences within a unit of inquiry. Teachers and students collaboratively create these to anchor their learning.
These flexible learning spaces and intentional structuring of the environment provide our students with opportunities to:
- make choices and decisions
- use materials in flexible and imaginative ways
- initiate inquiry and ask questions
- work collaboratively with one another
- sustain interest and extend thinking/knowledge
- develop understanding
- become active learners
Next time you’re at Spicewood, we invite you to take a closer look at our campus and the spaces we provide for our students to support their inquiry!