WOW-What a Month!

Spring has been a fantastic time to wonder.  We spend every day looking very carefully at the world around us and appreciating the beauty and many changes we see.  "Did you know the pinecones outside our school start out this pretty purple color?"  "Is that the same for all pinecones?" "Take a picture and let's find out."  These are just some of the conversations your inquisitive Explorers have with us have every single day.

Our Unit of Inquiry, Sharing the Planet, has us inquiring about the conservation of water, how the way we use water affects all living things and what our responsibilities are in using our fresh water supply.  The global well, the water cycle and our very small amount of fresh water has us filled with questions and we are working hard to uncover the answers.

Shui means water in Mandarin

 One place we do not need to conserve water is in our bodies.  We were surprised to find out how much water is in our bodies (60-70%).  "That's more than half!"


COSI
Earlier this month we had a fantastic visit from COSI.  Thank you to everyone that collected Box Tops for Education that funded this wonderful visit, and of course to all the parents who helped us learn so much at every station.  

Wolf Farms Visit

Wolf Farms came by to share wonderful apples with us and great information on how apples grow, are cared for and harvested.  

Acrobats from Beijing, China

We ohhhed and ahhhhed and loved every minute of their performances!  The Explorers noticed that no matter how challenging some of their tricks were, the acrobats never gave up.  What a tremendous lesson in commitment!

Field Trips

This week was absolutely perfect for field trips to Playhouse Square.  We sure got our exercise and were able enjoy the beautiful sunshine.  On Monday we saw a musical duo called "Trout Fishing in America."  Their songs and funny jokes had us laughing the whole time.  Here is a link if you would like to listen at home:

Trout Fishing in America

On Wednesday we saw the play "Zoo Zoo."  This was exciting and had us filled with so many questions.  Some classes headed back on Friday for an interactive art exhibit.  What a fun week!!

Mystery Readers

Thank you for coming and sharing your wonderful books with us.  We love that you take the time out of your busy schedules to read to our classes.  This gift means more than you will ever know to each and every Explorer!

Capturing Moments:

Reading, Reading, Reading
We LOVE to read!

Ants are so interesting!

Beautiful crayon art made by all our CIS Explorers.

An Exciting Week!

This week our Explorers got to share what they have learned in our Unit of Inquiry, How We Organize Ourselves.  It was fantastic to see how much our Thinkers know about shared responsibilities, roles, and cooperation!  We assigned tasks and watch their learning unfold...thrilling!

As a review, Mrs. Snyder's class had to create a 4 Square (as a group)on what cooperation is.  Their task was to define it, list characteristics, examples and non-examples.  Their independence and knowledge was so fun to watch.

Each class conducted a final assessment that included working in teams on a science experiment, Milk Rainbow.  Organization of their group, following directions, listening to their team, communicating, observing and recording were major elements of this fun activity.  

                                             

Here is a video showing the excitement that comes with the very last step:

*Next week we will begin to discuss our next Unit of Inquiry, Sharing the Planet as we celebrate Earth Day. Check your child's folder for information on our Trash Free Lunch Challenge.

Junior Achievement

Junior Achievement came to visit our kindergarten classes on Friday.  All of our guest teachers were from the Starbucks company and taught lessons on finances (needs/wants, saving/spending, counting coins).  It was a great experience!

Adding and Subtracting
In math we are adding and subtracting and we LOVE it!  Using story problems and fun manipulatives helps it all make sense. 

Here some friends are using their skills during Math Centers:

Mystery Readers!

We love our Mystery Readers!!  Aliza and Ean were thrilled to have their family members come and join their classes for a story.  Thank you so much for coming!

Spring in Kindergarten

We are getting to the end of our Unit of Inquiry, How We Organize Ourselves.  Our Explorers have really done an amazing job working with their classmates as they have demonstrated a fantastic understanding of the function of cooperation, their responsibility and connecting it all to the world.  The importance of being open-minded and communication with others are huge take aways from this unit.

The Nice Club (a club created by the older classmates) came by 

for a visit to Mrs. Humphrey's class.

 Mystery Sentences were tricky to piece together.  We were glad to work with each other to be able to get the work done!

Math Story problems are fun to create with a partner too!

Our days are filled with WONDER!

Investigating, taking notes, asking questions and loving the world around us makes our days so exciting.    Now that the snow is gone we have been able to find so many objects to investigate.  

 ANTS COOPERATE TOO AND ARE VERY FUN TO WATCH!

Mrs. Taylor's class enjoyed a very comfy Read-a-Thon this week!  

Math Fun!

Marble Math is favorite App!

Field Trip

Our field trip this week took us to Trinity Cathedral to see the Doug Wood Trio (Mr. Wood is a parent of a first grader at CIS).  What an amazing performance the trio shared with us!  We were glad to attend and connect our Unit of Inquiry to it as well.

Thank You Mystery Readers!

Cali and Emma were excited to have their family members surprise their classes as Mystery Readers.  This is such a fantastic treat!  Thank you for sharing your time and special books with our classes.

If you have not yet read, and would like to, we still have times available.  Just contact your child's teacher to schedule a day/time. We would love to have you!