Our students come from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds; many of whom are English Language Learners and have special needs. We were inspired by the Reggio idea of the Hundred Languages of the Child. We knew that a teacher-directed approach would not meet the needs of our learners. Our goal was to provide our students with a daily opportunity to explore a variety of materials so that they could construct and build their learning and develop a sense of wonder and curiosity about their world. This Exploration time would allow our diverse learners to communicate their learning in different ways.

We learned that this approach led to

• Higher student engagement
• Personalized learning
• Cross-curricular connections

This experience has made us look at ways to create flexibility in our timetable so that students have more time to engage in inquiry-based learning.