Wonder Wall: How to Promote Inquiry and Wonder in your Classroom

Raise your hand if your students ask you random questions throughout the week! Me too.

"How many people are in the world?"

"What makes trampolines bouncy?"

"How is paper made?"

"Why do we have a bellybutton?"

Some I don’t have time to answer, some I just don’t know the answer to, and some (let’s be real) should be obvious.

Let me tell you about ✨ Wonder Wednesday! ✨This is legit my students’ favorite reading rotation of the WEEK!

Our Wonder Wall is a catch all for those super random questions students have. They write their question on a sticky note and put it up on the wall.

On Wednesday, we have Wonder Wednesday - a reading rotation dedicated to them researching something they wonder about.

It’s so fun to see kids researching something authentic and inquiring deeper about that topic.

What about kids who don’t have a ‘wondering’ that week? They go on Wonderopolis - a super fun website that you should definitely check out if you haven’t before! There is a featured "wonder of the day" that students can read about. They can also browse popular wonders or search for a specific topic. Each article has vocabulary words and a little quiz at the end. Students also love submitting their wonderings to the website.

Lastly, I have them journal 📝 the last few minutes of that rotation about what they learned.

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How do you promote inquiry and wonder in your classroom? Leave your ideas in the comments!