Collaboration - Proximal Goal #2

Today, I met with a colleague at my school that also teaches French Immersion Kindergarten to collaborate and seek some advice. He is a much more experienced teacher than me and is someone who's passion and dedication to teaching I admire.
I ran some of my ideas by him and he gave me some advice on the initial inquiry process. We discussed the importance of creating a low-pressure, comfortable environment for the kids to be able to engage in inquiry and express their thoughts and questions to the class. He told me that he's had experiences of students not wanted to engage because of their lack of language. It has to be clear that there is no pressure or expectation in being able to express their inquiry in French. Once the direction of inquiry is established, we can develop useful French vocabulary and begin to use it in discussion with the teacher modelling language, but also not putting pressure on the kids to be able to use it accurately right away. As we know, teacher patience is key! Keeping the kids motivated and engaged is a top priority. Making sure the discussion is student-led and all students have the opportunity to contribute is also key, however that might look like.
He gave me some ideas of exploration centres in looking at leaf textures and patterns. We predicted some directions the inquiry could potentially go in asking about the change of colour in leaves and the loss of chlorophyll.