Fascination of Air: Nature-Based Inquiries for Children, (Paperback)

The challenge many of us face is balancing the planning paper work with our time interacting with children. We want to be with them, hear their ideas, and engage in the moments of awe and wonder sprinkled throughout the day, but we often feel the tension of needing to be in the office filling in paperwork. Imagine then a way of planning with and for children that brings joy to both adults and children alike. Child-led inquiries are the answer, especially when you know how to document and plan for them through Floorbooks(R). This book shares how to develop an emergent curriculum based on children's fascination with the wind by providing answers to the questions around the adult role, what children understand about the wind, how to assess risk, and how to use two ways of approaching the curriculum. The first is through an integrated emergent curriculum that uses the playfulness of the wind to motivate and engage children. The second is focussed on the lens of separate curriculum areas such as math, language, and science. Both approaches can be seen in practice within the case studies as children can be seen to be involved in shared sustained thinking.

The Fascination Series is a way of starting to reveal the opportunities for children to learn with nature, not about it, by not just sitting in it, but by connecting to it. Children will remember these experiences and will start to ponder their significance in terms of the larger issues that face us in modern society, such as sustainability.

Enjoy the stories of how children have explored wind through making kites and dreamcatchers and exploring the effects of the wind on nature as documented through Claire's world renowned Floorbook(R) approach, allowing you to see the huge amount of learning that takes place in the process of learning with nature.