Exploring the Life Cycle

            Starting the exploration for an investigation around the big idea of a life cycle, it is important to keep in mind that the interests of the child need to be followed.  It is essential to a constructivist classroom, that the curriculum is focused and guided by the children and their interests rather than the teacher. With the life cycle, the children can explore the characteristics a pumpkin has and the stages they go through as they grow from a seed to a flower to an orange pumpkin. In the Science and technology curriculum learning area, the children will have the chance to investigate the seeds that are found in the pumpkins. They will have the opportunity to make predictions and observations before and after this investigation (Ministry of Ontario, 2010, p. 119). In the blog written by Darla Myers mentioned in a previous post, her children had come up with questions based on how many seeds a pumpkin will have and if the size of the pumpkin means it will have more seeds inside. 

(picture from http://mrsmyerskindergarten.blogspot.ca/2013/11/pumpkins-investigaion.html)

The children might develop more questions while further exploring the pumpkins. The life cycle of the pumpkin might come into context in the sense that the children might want to know how the pumpkin became a pumpkin. In the Science and technology curriculum learning area, the children might have the opportunity to ask questions about and describe some natural occurrences using their own observations and representations about the stages a pumpkin goes through (Ministry of Ontario, 2010, p. 115). The children may ask questions based on how a pumpkin becomes a pumpkin or how do we grow a pumpkin. As an educator, it is important to use those questions the children ask as a base line when it comes to planning investigations for the children to explore.

 (picture from http://mrsmyerskindergarten.blogspot.ca/2013/11/pumpkins-investigaion.html)