We are Curious about Curiosity

This week our school focused on the first of twelve International Baccalaureate Attitudes, Curiosity.  We had so much fun, and it tied right into determining what our next Unit of Inquiry's Central Idea would be.  We are naturally very curious but seeing just how important it is in our daily learning really made it feel special!

The students in Mrs. Snyder's class had to reflect on what they had learned and, without using words, create a picture that best illustrates the understanding.  

Jack said, "The one on the left knows something
and that is not being curious.  The one on the right
is asking a question, and that is being curious."

Aliza said, "Curious George is wondering
about the world."

                         

                                                    Our Explorers are using lots of tools to
                                                    help with their investigations!


This week, we began to think about our next Central Idea.  What could it be?  For three days we uncovered clues and by the end of the week each class determined what we would focus on our next Unit of Inquiry, How the World Works.

Mrs. Humphrey's class said, "Investigations help us explore the world."

Ms. Wightman's class shared, "We think we are going to ask lots of questions about sound and other stuff."

Jake B. in Mrs. Taylor's class said, "I think it's about being curious." and Nyla J. said, "I think it's about asking good questions."

Mrs. Snyder's class determined that is was going to be, "Investigations help us explore everything!"

Well, they are all correct!  Our Unit of Inquiry, How the World Works, will be an inquiry into the natural world and its laws and how investigations help us explore the world.

Did your son or daughter come home and share their experiences with Oobleck?  Oh did we have fun investigating this strange substance.  It feels like a solid, but then it is also a liquid.  We certainly had lots of comments and questions!

If you would like to make Oobleck at home here is a recipe:

Oobleck

We even used the Hedbanz game to help us with our questioning and reasoning skills.  

Xin Nian Kuai Le! 

Happy New Year!  The Chinese New Year has come and we welcome the Year of the Snake.  










If you have come into our school recently you will see a fu on each door.  This is a symbol of luck in China.  Each Explorer made a fu this week in their Mandarin class.

Special Visitors:

We also had special guests come by from Martin Luther King Career Center to share fire safety information with us.  

We were very excited to try on parts of their extensive uniforms!

Reminders...

Just a couple friendly reminders:

*We do not have school on Friday, February 15th and Monday,  February 18th.  Enjoy your long weekend!

*We will be celebrating the attribute Caring (part of our Learner Profile) on February 14.  Your child may exchange cards with their friends, but we do request that no candy be exchanged on this day. A letter will be sent home with more specific requests from your child's teacher.

100 Day's of Fun

That's how you say 100 in Mandarin!  We sure had fun celebrating our 100th day of school this week. 

Celia's mom (Ms. Melissa) came to Mrs. Snyder's class and created wonderful 100th Day crowns with all our excited Explorers.  They added 100 images (10 on each strip) to their crowns.  It was a lesson full of creativity, fun and endurance!

 Here are some of the 100 Day Collections the students brought in to share:

We loved everyone's project and creativity!  

Here are a couple other 100 day activities:

What can you do with 100 cups?  This took some great balancing and skill.  Here Rafe and Aliza worked to build a tower while others created a super base all around.  The height of the tower was so exciting! 

Mrs. Snyder's class created a pizza and only wanted 100 toppings.  The goal was to share the work equally so it was a real dilemma to figure out just how many toppings we would each add.  Being the amazing THINKERS they are, the class determined they would each need to add 5 toppings and that would give us exactly 100.  *I wish I had recorded the conversation to get to this point.  It was tremendous!

Friday was DUMPLING DAY!  Oh we waited all week for this big day.  Our wonderful Mandarin teachers, with the help of amazing parent volunteers, taught each class how to make dumplings. The big surprise was just how much work goes into each one.  A true appreciation was fostered! 

Mrs. Humphrey's birthday girl, Sonia, enjoyed a Mystery Reader surprise this week!  

We are Thinkers...

Such a fun and busy week.  We started off at our Morning Meeting where Mrs. Karas (our IB Coordinator) let us know that as a school we would be paying careful attention to the attribute of Thinker of our Learner Profile.  This brought on great excitement in our kindergarten classes right away.  All week long we celebrated ways we were Thinkers, but also our Caring Explorers were quick to point out when they noticed their friends being Thinkers too.  Needless to say, a lot of Destination Tickets are in the globe just waiting to be chosen at Tuesday's meeting!

Our Unit of Inquiry on How We Express Ourselves (Central Idea-Celebrations allow us to explore and express our ideas, cultures and beliefs) has led us to a very interesting study on Matin Luther King Jr.. We were fascinated by his amazing life and are honored to celebrate all he stood for and did for our country!

Early in the week we were wondering which attributes of the Learner Profile best represented Martin Luther King Jr..  Throughout the week, after every lesson, we reflected on all the attributes and found examples.  By the end of the week, we found that he reflected every attribute!

The students cited examples to justify their thinking for each attribute and their thoughts were on displayed our poster.

Here Brooklyn used her journal to record her thinking,

"Martin Luther King Everyone can be great...open-minded"

*Amazing to see a 6 year old quote a book and add personal thought to it...such a Thinker!

Math:

We are continuing our work to break our numbers into pairs as we seek to understand how numbers are constructed.  This week we worked on the number 8.  The discussions and awe when we work through our lessons are thrilling to hear.  

 

 If you look closely, you will see how two students chose to express their thinking in Mandarin!  THINKERS FOR SURE!

A Fun Place for Inquiry:

California Academy of Sciences has provided a fun look into an African Penguin Habitat.  The live web cam allows us to watch the penguins above the ground and even underwater.  Needless to say this site has provided a wonderful opportunity of inquiry.   

Posted below is the link if you are interested in taking a look.  *They have provided an application for your tablet or smartphone on their site.

Live Penguin Camera

Explorer Spotlight:

Zaid, one of our remarkable Explorers from Mrs. Taylor's class, came to each kindergarten class and wrote the Arabic alphabet for us.  It was so interesting to see how we wrote right to left and how his book was set up the opposite books in written in English.  The characters were all so unique and interesting.  We are looking forward to more lessons from Zaid!

Celia, a true Communicator from Mrs. Snyder's class, wrote a book called Monkey on the Moon over her vacation and shared it with the class.   Not only was her book wonderful, she did a tremendous job engaging the class as she shared.

Mrs. Snyder's class was delighted to have another Mystery Reader on Friday.  Dr. Alexander, Ean's mom, came to share a family favorite book.  Dr. Alexander went to school with the author and even was mentioned with a thank for you for her contributions in the book.  

Upcoming Events:
January 30-Early Release Day and our 100th day of School!!
*We will be sending home an activity this week for your child to bring in on the 100th Day.