I started with the FORM key and the question: What is it like? The children were very excited touching it and exploring it that the vocabulary that came with it was just great! They said it was white, soft, sticky, stinky, smells good, smooth, fluffy and gooey. Since I teach in an inclusive classroom with children with special needs and their typically developing peers, this activity lent itself to building their vocabulary.
The second was FUNCTION and the question: How does it work? The discussion got more exciting as the children started thinking about what it is for. They said that they use it to wash their hands, one said he saw his dad use it on his face, and another said it is what his mom uses to clean the carpet. The third and fourth keys were the CONNECTION and REFLECTION key. Here my students were really able to connect to their background knowledge and experiences as they thought about how it is like something they have seen before and I followed their connections with the question: How do you know to really get deeper into the reasoning behind their answer. A lot of them associated it with ice cream and icing but they also said you can't eat it because it smells bad. Some said it looks like snow but it can't be snow since snow does not have a smell and it was not cold like snow. Another child responded that it looked and smelled like soap or hand wash that they have at home.
Using the Thinking Keys definitely added the thinking dimension to this activity. Unlike before, conversations around this activity only revolved around what they are making or drawing on it. This time aside from playing and exploring such a fun material as shaving cream, the students were able to use and build their vocabulary, connect to their background experiences and practice reasoning skills in providing evidence for their claims. Hurray for the Thinking Keys!!!
