How We Express Ourselves

We are just beginning our third Unit of Inquiry, How We Express Ourselves.  We will be exploring the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feeling, nature, culture and values.

Our Central idea is: 

Art opens a door to expression.

We will use the concepts: Form, Reflection and Perspective 

Form: features of different art forms
Reflection: Interpretation of art forms
Perspective: What is the artist's point of view

What do we see?  What do we think?  What do we wonder?  How does it make us feel?  Why?

We started the inquiry off investigating what we thought art was and what we thought expression was.  Evaluating these two big ideas was so much fun.  We certainly had a lot of interesting debates.  We are learning early on how important it is to be a good communicator and to be open-minded!

We explored various art forms this week.  Creating models and sculptures, photography, painting, book writing, drawing, making music, dancing, poetry...(the list truly goes on and on.:)) was quite exciting!  

One of our many findings was that many artists use a lot of interesting shapes (flat and solid) in their work too.

                    


Mathematicians can be artists too! 

Listening the the Explorers communicate the meaning behind each of their creations was fantastic!

Our trip to the Art Museum on November 25 is going to be so interesting!

Shaker Lakes Nature Center

Mrs. Humphrey and Ms. Tylor's classes took a trip to the Shaker Lakes Nature Center this week and had a great time exploring the outdoors! 

Ms. Mori and Mrs. Snyder's classes will be going in December.

Thank you Mystery Readers for joining our classes.  We just love listening to you read!

Book Character Parade

Wow! Our Book Character Day Parade was so much fun. Everyone put a great deal of thought into their costumes. We had a variety of fiction and nonfiction books represented and almost all attributes of the Learner Profile.  Such creativity!!

Researchers and Thinkers Hard at Work

Inquiring minds want to know...what kind of home is this?

Our inquiry into how location determines habitats has been fascinating!  We have looked carefully at shelters/homes around the world and uncovered what they are like (form), why they are like they are (causation) and how they work (function).   Environments around the world are so unique!

Take a look at our habitologists at work!

Zoo Adventures!

We found a perfect sign!
"Elephants need shelter.  People need shelter."

Our trip to the zoo helped us further our study.  What a perfect day!

The Natural History Museum Visit

We were lucky to have a guest come by from the museum and share information about animal adaptations.  Were were able to explore different parts of animals and figure our what helps them survive.  As thinkers and researchers we studied their furs, skulls and teeth. Who knew they were so different?!

Thank you Mystery Readers for visiting our classes and sharing your great books!

We must celebrate Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. Humphrey's classes.  They did a fantastic job performing for the school on Friday's Open Mic.  Such risk-takers and communicators!

"Keep on the Sunny Side"

Fall Festival Fun

We lucked out with a beautiful day for our Fall Festival yesterday!  It was wonderful to see so many of your smiling faces having such a great time.  Thank you so much for all of our fantastic family volunteers who made it all possible!