Unit of Inquiry Wrap-up

We spent this week wrapping up our Unit of Inquiry of Where We Are in Place and Time.  An inquiry into homes and journeys and the environmental impacts was so interesting!  

The icing on the cake was truly the Home Exhibition and the amazing home projects that began arriving early in the week.  The children and families all did an absolutely tremendous job creating their homes.  The details were remarkable and you can sure tell the ownership and pride each student has in their finished project.  Thank you for ALL your help!

A big thank you as well to all the parents that volunteered on the day of the Home Exhibition.  You surely helped make it a day filled with wonderful memories!

Here is a photo journey for your viewing pleasure:

As we enjoyed our Exhibition, we also spent a great deal of time reflecting back on all we have learned through the unit.  Here are a few samples:

 Pre/Post home assessments: 

After completing out Post assessment on drawing and labeling the parts of their home, our Explorers were really excited to look at their pre-assessment and see how different the two look.

The students worked in groups to reflect what they had learned about various environments and how the shelter, transportation and needs are impacted.  

Operation Hope Totes was a great success!  Thank you for all your help making sure families have their needs met from the City Mission.

Eco Explorers from the Cleveland Metroparks came for a visit.  It was very interesting to see all the mammals that live right in our area.  We had a great time guessing which fur belonged to each animal.

Our new Mandarin Schedule began this week too (wow-a lot happened in the course of 5 days!).  We now have Mandarin every day.  We LOVE it! We welcomed Zhou Laoshi.











Upcoming Events:
12/5-Wednesday is an Early Release Day.  
                      1:30 Dismissal
12/12- Field Trip to the Art Museum 
12/18- Holiday Shop begins (runs through 12/20)
12/19- Winter Concert 6:30pm @ Waetjen Hall

 Happy Thanksgiving!

We are not entirely certain where November has gone, and how it could possibly be Thanksgiving, but when we take these opportunities to reflect we see just how much we have accomplished!

We sure enjoyed making our Thanksgiving cards in Mandarin and have even taken virtual field trips to Plymouth, Massachusetts to learn about the journey the Pilgrims embarked on coming to this new land.  If you would like to take a virtual trip to Massachusetts with your family just click on the link below:

Thanksgiving Virtual Field Trip

Our study of homes and journeys has lead us to learn so much about the shelters the Pilgrims needed and how they constructed them with such little resources.

 
To help us with our inquiry on how/why homes and shelters are created Mr. Taylor came to share his journeys with us as a soldier with the Air National Guard.  We learned so much about the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and the work that is being done on the East Coast and elsewhere around the world.  The shelters they have constructed are fascinating!  Thanks for coming Mr. Taylor!

Reading/Writing

We have really taken off with our reading!  Knowing that we CAN read is a wonderful thing. We read stories as classes and in our small groups.  We work on sounding out words, fluency with our sight words and of course using clues to figure out unfamiliar words.

As our reading skills are growing so are our writing.  Using our sounds to build words is so powerful!  

 As authors and illustrators we are able to communicate an entire story, with a beginning, middle and ending.  Can you believe it?! We have been in school 62 days and have grown in so very many ways.  The best part about writing our books is of course sharing them with others in the classroom.  

Celia is reading her story New Fish to the class.

Math

In Math we are deep thinkers and figuring out all kids of ways to solve problems.  It is good to know that often there are many ways to arrive at an answer.









Thank you Mystery Readers!  You are such a gift to our students and school.  Thank you for taking the time to share a story (or two) with us.


Things to Remember:

**Home Exhibition Projects are due on Thursday, November, 29.  The Exhibition will take place on 11/30 in the 1st floor lobby.  Since there are 80 Kindergarten students, please remember that we are asking that the house not be any bigger than a shoe or cereal box.  We are very excited to share these with our school and community.  We have such creative Explorers!

**Hope Totes for The City Mission- Each Kindergarten class has been assigned a different item needed to fill a tote.  *We have set a goal to fill 28 totes.  Please send donations with your child on Friday, November 30.  We are anxious to see just how many totes we can fill.  

Reminder-

Mrs. Humphrey's class: bar soap

Mrs. Snyder's class: toothpaste

Mrs. Taylor's class: toothbrush

Mrs. Wightman's class: shampoo

**Ms. Lipka is asking that everyone save lids for her.  All sizes!  Just send them into your son/daughter's class and we will be certain to get them to her.  

Thank you for all you do each and every day!  

Where We Are in Place and Time

To kick off our new unit, students reflected on what they felt a
home was and what a journey might be.  

Need and Wants Pre-Assessment-Studnts were asked to order the objects
as to what they needed most to survive.  So fun to hear the
Explorers explain their reasoning for the order they chose!

We have begun our second Unit of Inquiry, Where We are in Place and Time.  It is an inquiry into homes and journeys.  In this IB unit we will discuss homes, shelters, journeys and transportation.  We will explore how the environment impacts the type of shelter we live in as well as the materials needed to build a home.  Through this unit of study, our Explorers will begin to understand the items they "need" to survive and what items are "wants."  Studying the effects of Hurricane Sandy has opened our eyes tremendously about what we, and others, really need to survive. 

 Here the students had to sort a variety of items as they helped, Ms. Vogias "pack" for a trip.  They had to work in teams and think critically about what she needed to bring as space was limited.  Oh the discussions that were propelled from this activity were fantastic!

After reading about houses and homes across the world, two Expolers designed a house with stilts and had scissions on how it could live in an environment with water.  Such Thinkers!



We took part in our own elections as we geared up for the nation's elections.  It was a lot of fun to vote as classes and compare our results with other grades and classrooms throughout the school.

Reflecting and Communicating are important aspects of the Learner Profile.  As the Explorers journal and work in their Problem Solving Notebooks, sharing is so very important.  

Word families are so much fun!  

In math we are working hard on the concept "How many more," as well and the cardinality of numbers 11-20.  

Here two students are playing Get the Moon math game and working on "How many more."


Thank you to our Mystery Readers!  We love, love, love having you come.  

Things to Remember:
November 16-Mr. Taylor will be coming to discuss the National Guard's efforts to help others after Hurricane Sandy
November 21-23-Thanksgiving Vacation
November 29-Home Projects are due (information was given at conferences)
November 30-Home Exhibition

Fall is in Full Swing

 Mrs. Snyder's and Mrs. Wightman's classes began the week with spending a perfect day at the zoo.  Wow..did they luck out with the weather!  

Apple Investigation

 We spent all week breaking down our 8 Key Concepts (5 are listed to the left) as we took a good look at apples.  We are absolutely amazed at how our students are able to make sense of these "Fancy Nancy" words, and apply them to all aspects of our learning.

Perspective and Change provided very yummy learning experiences! Perspective was represented in a graph as we taste tested various apples.  We were surprised by our results! 

After following the life cycle of an apple seed as we introduced Change, and reading many books on apples, we thought it would be fun to make applesauce.  It was so yummy! Change happens in lots of ways.  

Writing

The power of the mighty pencil!  Putting our voice on paper is a big step as we learn many ways to express ourselves. 

Here our students are responding to literature (The Scarecrow's Hat):

 Take a look at the amazing progression of writing our Kindergarteners will make:

An Explorer created this word and surprised us all!  We love to write in all ways!

Thank you to our Mystery Readers this week!

So Caring!

I was so glad to be be able to capture this moment on film!  Our Explorers are so very Caring. They are always looking out for one another.  Here a student noticed another child did not have their coat zipped and didn't want him to be cold, so without being asked, put his things down and started zipping! 

Things to Remember:

*Fall Festival is today from 2:00-4:00.  See you there!

*Book Character/Learner Profile Attribute Parade on Wednesday.  This will be in the afternoon (depending on the weather we may keep it right at our school).  Please send the costume and book with your child on that day.  

*Field Trip to Playhouse Square on Thursday for the entire school to see Snowflake (Hopefully, that is the only snow we will see this week).