Authentic Teachable Moments

“Who we are” is the transdiciplinary theme under which KGII learners are inquiring about being “Balanced”. Within their inquiry, they figure out the balanced choices needed for a healthier life style, acquire and apply a set of transdiciplinary skills: social, communication, thinking, research and self management skills that are valuable not only in this unit of inquiry but also for any learning that goes on within the classroom and outside the school.
Although, Kids exercise all the time without even thinking of it they were curious to know more about its importance and its different kinds. Thus, in an attempt to construct a meaningful learning about what a healthy life style is and to deepen learners` understanding about exercise, we offered them an authentic opportunity to visit a health club and interview its trainers. During the visit, they actively observed the health club, determined the different kinds of exercises, collected information from the trainers about the importance of each kind of exercise, analyzed the taught knowledge through the discussion held in the classroom after the visit and drew the conclusion, as they reflected on their journal copybooks, that one needs to exercise everyday to have a strong and healthy body.
Nevertheless, new tensions were emerged on the part of some learners who were curious to expand their understanding and engage in in-depth research of how exercise builds a healthy body. Thus, I planned further investigation and offered my learners demonstrations by browsing the website www.kidshealth.org to inquire about why exercise is cool; how it makes the heart happy, strengthens the muscles, makes one flexible, keeps the balance and makes one feel good.
Therefore, these learning experiences widen the learners` knowledge and motivate them to step back from their inquiries to think about what is of value from them and take the initiative to try to be active every day for their body to thank them later.

Rana Nakouzi
Homeroom Teacher KGII A