Last Saturday, I had an amazing “New York” day. My husband and I met my daughter and son-in-law at the Whitney Museum to see the inspirational exhibition of Edward Hopper’s work. After a few hours at the museum, we took a cross-town bus to Union Square where we got on a Q train to East 86 Street. We were hungry so we walked to Second Avenue and ate at a very old time New York diner. After stuffing ourselves until we could eat no more, we walked to the beautiful Carl Schurz Park and then took a walk on the promenade along the river. We ended the day by riding on the ferry from East 90th Street to Wall Street, with stops along the way. It was windy and cold on the top deck but we had the most amazing views of the city!
This wonderful day made me think about the joy of going on an inquiry journey with children. When I was teaching, my kindergarten class traveled all around New York as part of our bridge study. The next year, when the children were in First Grade ( I looped with my class), at the suggestion of the children, we investigated the various waterways that flowed under the bridges that we had visited and other waterways in and on the outskirts of the city. I’ll never forget those experiences and I wouldn’t be surprised if the children, now in their 30s, and their parents too, have memories from those excursions.
When I did consulting work with teachers, I encouraged them to embrace inquiry investigations in their classrooms. So many of these teachers did so and with truly wonderful results for the children and for themselves.
When we disembarked from the ferry we walked to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal to get the train back to Brooklyn, but along the way we passed Saker Aviation and I was reminded of a wonderful Aviation investigation that Dana Roth did with her kindergarten class.
Here are some photos to take you along on the children’s investigation and on their journey. 
THE NEXT TRIP WAS TO FLOYD BENNET FIELD.
I would love to hear about inquiry journeys that you and your classes have gone on!
You can click on “reply” at the top of this post to share YOUR classroom inquiry story.
Lovely description and photos of wonderful learning experiences.
What has happened to education.
Yes Olivia, what has happened and why are we taking childhood away from children? It’s so obvious that these children had many rich learning experiences while they were doing these explorations.
Olivia, I often hear that we spiral back at some point. However, it seems like education has gone too far astray. It’s not the individual children who are being seem but rather some arbitrary numbers on spread sheets. I guess we need to keep advocating for children and childhood and hope that someone in a position of power hears us. Also, we need to assure parents that children don’t have to jump ahead, but rather, spread out and flourish.