Oh the Excitement!

We were introduced this week to a new camera capturing the lives of two eagles and their new eaglets!  Absolutely amazing!  Thanks to technology, we are able to see the daily happenings of the birds and study their actions.  This study generates a lot of questions for sure, but as inquirers we are trying to uncover all the answers as they come our way.  If you have not taken a look yet, here is the link: Eagle Cam.  

We continue to study the Lily, Hope and the new cubs at Bear.org, but as the weather improves, they are spending less and less time in their den.  This cycle of life is a perfect fit for our Unit of Inquiry!    

Engineering was a large focus of our week as well.  Mrs. Snyder's class was introduced to circuits in a new station rotation in the room.  The students' first project was to create a Flying Saucer.  The excitement when the mission was accomplished was absolutely priceless!!!

Mrs. BW created a FANTASTIC adventure for all our kindergardeners in the Engineering room.  The focus was centered on tools and machines.  While the students rotated among the stations they were able to take pictures around the school, explore tools, batteries and investigate the function and components of machines that were generously donated for this inquiry.  

One last note for the week, our new chairs came!!!  They are a ton of fun and healthy too!  Our explorers have even created Essential Agreements that allow us all to use them safely and effectively.  Great job Explorers...you sure are Principled Risk-Takers (two of our Learner Profiles)!

Odds and Ends

Are we really at the end of March?  Maybe our next inquiry should be...Why does time go so fast? Our days are filled with so much that it is often hard to capture it all.  

Before any more is said; however, we would like to thank you all for coming to our March Conferences!  It was a joy to see your child share with you all they do at school and celebrate how far they each have come.

Below are just a few pictures that will help you take a "Picture Walk" through our last few weeks.

Here are two ways we can show our creativity-one of our IB Attitudes:

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  Let the planting begin...

                                                

BOY do we love maps...all kinds!!   

 Empathy is another of our IB Attidudes.  Our Explorers are sure empathetic for the people in Japan.  We are now trying to figure out the best way we can help out.  If anyone has ideas for us to discuss, please let us know.


This week we will continue planting and we will begin COMPOSTING-yay!  The explorers are more than eager to begin making their own soil.

It All Adds Up!

  Kindergardeners always amaze us! 

IB Attitudes

As part of our curriculum we are now studying our IB Attitudes.

The PYP Attitudes help to promote an environment where personal responsibility and mutual care is emphasized.  The attitudes help the students focus on the choices they make in an effort to improve the quality of life for their community.

PYP Attitudes

Appreciation         Commitment

Confidence           Cooperation

Creativity            Curiosity

Empathy          Enthusiasm

Independence      Integrity

Respect             Tolerance

How the World Works

We have begun our latest unit of inquiry, How the World Works.  As part of our study we are going to experience and explore our AMAZING world!  We will be focusing our inquiries primarily to plants, but will also be looking into many other aspects of the world around us.

Here is the general layout of the unit:

Central Idea:

The children see the wonder of the world by interacting with the environment and making choices.

Lines of Inquiry:

1-The life cycle of plants

2- The interdependence of land, people and animals

3-Food changes due to weather and availability

A few of our exciting adventures:

1)  A growing room on the kindergarten floor

2)A greenhouse outside as the weather improves

3)Composting

4)Dehydrating fruits and vegetables

5)A Saturday family trip to the Westside Market

Nonsense Words...What's the Point?

Through our work in reading we have spent a good deal of time on sounding out nonsense words.  As this work comes home, do you ever wonder what in the world we are doing?

 

The ability to blend random sounds to form a word is an important skill for our children to have.  It encourages our readers to rely on their phonics skills to read correctly, rather than simply guessing the word based on the content of “clues” they have encountered on their page.  As our readers become more advanced, they will be exposed to muli-syllabic words.  Their strong phonics skills will help them progress nicely through these words as most will have to be sounded out and not guessed.

100 Days Already?

The past two weeks have been wonderfully busy in the world of kindergarten!  We have been continuing our study of coins and time and that has led perfectly into our 100 days of school. It was thrilling to see so many of our students make the connection independently that 100 pennies made $1!

 "Look what I can do with 100..."  (base 10 blocks)

 Getting our opportunity to finally use that ambiguous 100's place on our place value chart!

        

Observing similarities and differences among the coins

Spinning the coin wheel and matching the amount shown with the correct coin

                                       Using coins to represent a purchase amount

The 100 day collections that arrived at our school this week were spectacular!!  We will be posting pictures for all to see, but if you happen to be up at the school, please tour the kindergarten floor to see the creativity in all the displays.  Talk about being Thinkers!!  All our families really thought of creative ways to express their child's interest and reflect our 100 days.  Fantastic!!!

We have begun our new Unit of Inquiry-How the World works as well. We will spend the next 8 weeks marveling at our amazing world.  As a portion of this unity we introduced an aquarium, and of course are continuing to observe Lily, Hope and the cubs at Bear.org.  We will also be starting a growing unit, complete with grow lights, video cameras, a greenhouse (once the weather improves) and a composter.  Exciting times!  Look for a new blog posting for that alone in the next few days. 

In Mandarin we are continuing to learn about customs.  Ask your child about how the Chinese celebrate birthdays (1^st month and 100 day celebrations).  I bet they would even like to sing Happy Birthday for you in Mandarin.

Did you happen to see CIS on the news on Friday?  Here is a link in case you missed it:

Channel 19-CIS

Great job Exporers!!!!!