In a week's time our early years students will be taking part in their annual sports day. One of the stations will deal with road signs and symbols and will have them drive, the modes of transport that they created in art, through a road course (see Examples of Integration page for a detailed explanation of this integration). They must obey the road signs along the way and will be under the watchful eye of teachers and a volunteer policeman (our director Barry Sutherland). The road signs they have investigated so far are stop signs, yield signs, one way signs, railroad crossings, slow down signs, Cambodian elephant crossings (they love this one!), and traffic lights. They seem to be having a lot of fun.

As Early Years Sports Day is quickly approaching, we are training up the little ones for the events that they will be taking part in on the day. A variety of throwing objects will be used but the aim of throwing for distance will remain the same.

To set up this inquiry, we had each student choose a hula hoop to stand inside to throw from. The same hula hoop remained their throwing home for the duration of class. We first had them explore a number of different throwing styles with a foam frisbee, continually reminding them of the aim which was throwing for distance. They all threw at the same time and on command would run out at the same time to retrieve their frisbee and return back to their throwing home. After experimenting with a number of throwing styles, we asked them the following question, "Which throwing style do you think worked best for you"?
All of the students were able to identify the throwing style that worked best for them. We then had them use only this style again and there was a definite difference in the distance that they threw. Although not all students threw mechanically correct, they were able to identify a type of throw that worked best for them which was what the inquiry was all about. They were given the choice to explore and choose.
The same process was used with balls. A follow up discussion led to the conclusion that you must throw a frisbee and ball differently which was another goal of this inquiry. This lesson really did work well and I recommend it as good way to introduce student led inquiry into throwing.