Survey Says....

With the end of the school year around the corner, we've been reviewing skills in the JK class. Surveys are one of the text forms we haven't visited in a while, and we decided to take a look again. We used to write our names under one of the columns (rows go across, columns go up & down). We've taken it one step further, and now we're working on taking a tally and looking more at number sentences.

When the children came down to the carpet after snack, they of course gravitated towards the whiteboards. It was apparently decided that they wanted to create surveys of their own. I was very impressed with the variation of questions that the children developed, without prompting. All of our whole group survey questions have started with, "Did ..." and they ran with that. I volunteered to scribe their survey question for them, and I was pleased that the children went ahead and made the T-chart for collecting the data, on their own. In the beginning, I was printing Yes and No for them. What was I thinking? 

With all their experience under their belt, writers asked if they could write 

Yes and No for themselves. Of course! 

Never underestimate the determination of a 4 year old!

After circulating around the classroom, they asked friends their survey question 

and proceeded to record the data, in the form of tally marks.

And some felt confident enough to write their own survey question.

When I caught up with these two children, they had progressed to the point where 

they were calculating their totals! 

Note the numbers circled at the bottom of the T-chart.

Their creativity never ceases to amaze me! On this rainy morning; with no outdoor play, whiteboards and a connection with their peers is what they desired. Through their own direction, numeracy and literacy were embedded in "play". 

Thank you for visiting with us at the atelier.