Question a Day - Building Children's Research Skills in a Fun Way

Cortney, 9, and Kyle, 6, were always asking great questions, many (actually most) of which I had no idea of the answer.

Since we were studying a unit on Inquisitiveness (KONOS Vol. 2), I wanted to channel their natural desire for information in a positive direction. One of the main concepts I wanted to teach my children is how to find information for themselves.

One morning Kyle work me up with his usual hug and kiss and an unexpected question: "Do ostriches really stick their heads in the ground?" I had to tell him I thought it was a myth, but we could look it up to make sure. He jumped off the bed and was soon back with a book about birds. We paged through it but found no answer. So I got up and we got more books out and the encyclopedias down - all before breakfast or even getting dressed. We found our answer.*

I told Kyle, with a hug, that this was a fun way to wake up. So guess how I was awakened the next morning...Right! Hug, kiss, and another question.

I decided that this natural curiosity could be used to teach him and his sister research skills. I designed a notebook page for them to use ... one each day. Each page had the following spaces on it:

Date:

Question:

Where will I look for the answer?

Who could I ask?

Answer?

Where I found my answer:

Other information I learned:

Originally, I thought we would all work together on one question, but that was not to be...they each had to have their own question. In fact, they had several days worth of questions filled in on pages, when Cortney asked if she HAD to wait until tomorrow to look up the answer to that day's question.

Like I was going to tell her "no." Her notebook filled up rapidly. She discovered she LOVED doing research. Now I admit this was not as thrilling a project for Kyle. He did enjoy the questions and looking for answers, paging through books (this was prior to our having Internet or even a computer). However, the recording of information was less exciting to him. So I helped him fill out his pages and his excitement increased. He also enjoyed drawing pictures so each of his pages included some artwork.

Both children had always enjoyed going to the libraries in our area...but now they went with a purpose. They had to have the RIGHT books...so they started spending more concentrated time picking out non-fiction books that might come in handy. We often made trips to our small local library because we needed MORE books to look for the answers.

Keeping all their pages in a notebook provided us with joyful times re-reading their material. I also was able to watch their writing skills improve, as well as the changes in their penmanship.

Later, we made a board game using all the information they had collected in the research. We wrote out question cards. The children designed a gameboard....a path with bridges for forward moves and slides for backward moves when designated spaces were landed upon. In turn, each player would draw a card and if they correctly answered the question, they could shake a die and move the indicated number of spaces, racing to the final space.

* Do ostriches really hide their heads in the sand? You don't really expect me to just tell you the answer and spoil all the learning and fun you will have in researching this on your own???