Happiness

We completed our first full week and we cannot even begin to express to you the difference 5 days can make in the lives of our Explorers.  We spent a great deal of time this week going over procedures, transitions and sharing.  All our Explorers are working very hard and have really caught on to our expectations quickly.

During the beginning of the week, we developed our Essential Agreements.  Every Explorer has agreed to follow them and really felt that if we all follow them, then CIS will be a fun and safe place to learn.  We would love it if you would continue to review the agreements at home.  The impact is so meaningful when we all speak a common language.

We sure enjoyed creating our names with different materials and are trying to remember to only use a capital letter in the beginning.  We even graphed how many letters were in our names. So much fun!

Mandarin began this week as well.  We learned how to greet our teacher properly and had a great time meeting her panda bear friend.

Our Unit of Inquiry is underway.  We are beginning with Who We Are as we look deeply into how children share similarities and differences with others around the world. As we dive into this study, we will be calling on you to help us celebrate our inquiries with items from home.  Please look for a letter this week.

The Learner Profile we will be introducing this week is Caring and our IB Attitude is Appreciation.  We would love it if you would share with us when you see your child showing these special traits at home too. 

Here are a few pictures of our classroom happenings this week:

 Such creativity!

 Already writing!

 Stella Luna is such a great book!  We saw that even though she missed her mommy, she still took the time to make new friends.

 First graders came down and left messages for us on our white boards in the hallway.  Such a nice surprise and so caring!

Welcome to Kindergarten and Campus International!

We must first begin by thanking everyone for coming and spending the time with your child as they transitioned into kindergarten.  It was a joy to have opportunities to talk to you and see the interactions between the families and our fabulous Explorers.  The projects you worked on look amazing.  Look for pictures soon!!

We sure had a wonderful week getting to know each other and our new surroundings.  Did your child talk about chasing down the Gingerbread Man throughout the school? 

That sneaky cookie led us on a tour around the school, leaving lots of clues along the way, only to lead us right back to our classroom! He was nowhere to be found, but left some yummy cookies instead.  A few Explorers asked, “If we read the story again, will we get more cookies?”  What Thinkers and Inquirers (IB Learner Profiles)!

We sure are looking forward to the first full week!!  See you Monday.

Zoo Trip

Kindergarten is headed to the zoo within the next few weeks (please look for a letter communicating the exact date/times).  We are all so excited to see the animals, but also to celebrate the big return of the elephants in their new habitat.  We need parent volunteers, but are also limited on the number of tickets we have.  If you have a zoo membership, and would like to join us, would you please let your child's teacher know.  
*Due to space availability on the bus, we may need you to drive separately.


Please let us know if you are willing to take the adventure along with us!

West Side Market Trip

As we continue to learn about growing our own food, the impact of weather and the interdependence of people, animals and plants, we are planning a Saturday Family Field Trip Day to the West Side Market on May 21, 2011 at 9:30 am.  We would like to meet in the back, closest to the parking lot.  We thought this would be a fun way to explore our fabulous market and all it has to offer. 


Here is a link that may answer any questions you may have:      http://www.westsidemarket.org/about.html

Stumbled Upon This Website...

Happy spring everyone!  With all this rain we are certainly seeing everything gain leaves, flowers and strength.  What an exciting time!

Today, as I was preparing for the weeks ahead I came upon this website:
Today I Ate a Rainbow.  It fits perfectly into our unit of inquiry and I had to share before I forgot.  Take a look and share the resources with your children.  I look forward to hearing all about your discoveries!

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.