Curious Wonderings; Becoming Inquirers

As we continue working toward becoming true inquirers, it is fun to take a look at what our class is most interested in. Perhaps these inquiries will lead some of our curious children to their future professions. (Abigail says, “I’m going to be four things when I grow up!”)

**I have not changed the language of the children. These questions represent their own wonderings! This is a long list, but worth a read!

1. Science
2. Dogs
3. Cooking
4. Trees and nature
5. Sea life
6. Why do we need a class?
7. Why do we need roads?
8. Why do we need tables?
9. Whey do we need trees?
10. Why do we have dolphins?
11. How does pictures come from the T.V.?
12. How does water become waves?
13. How does feathers help birds fly?
14. How does the steering wheel help cars go?
15. How does wires help electronic things work?
16. Why can’t kittens understand you?
17. Why can’t kittens talk?
18. How do people make paper?
19. How do blankets keep you warm?
20. How do you get in the world?
21. I’m curious about Mrs. Haddock.
22. I’m curious about soccer.
23. I’m curious about me.
24. I’m curious about mom.
25. I’m curious about EVERYTHING!
26. Why do stuffed animals not talk?
27. Why can birds fly but we cannot?
28. Why do rainbows have colors?
29. Why do things in outer space float?
30. Mexico
31. Airplanes
32. How do things fly?
33. Dolphins
34. Books
35. Fossils
36. Animals
37. How frogs develop
38. Why people smoke
39. Why did people make drugs?
40. Dreams
41. Sri Lanka
42. Snow
43. How sugar is made
44. Dinosaurs
45. Why is the sky blue?
46. Penguins
47. Flowers
48. The beach
49. Books
50. Mice
51. Fish
52. Music
53. Killer Whales
54. Meerkats
55. Blue Whales
56. How do you make the map machine?
57. How do you make paper?
58. How do you make stoves?
59. How do you make a refrigerator?
60. How do you make a clock?
61. How do you make plastic?
62. How do you make sunscreen?
63. How do you make toothpaste?
64. How do you make a toothbrush?
65. How do you make water?
66. Who was the first person in space?
67. Who was the first person on Earth?
68. Are there really pirates?
69. Who invented soccer?
70. How do they make trophies?
71. Who was the first person to make a car?
72. Who was the first person to make electricity?
73. How do you drive a car?
74. How do you make candy?
75. What does your heart look like?
76. Why does the world go?
77. How can people have eyes that are only blue, green and brown?
78. How was Earth made?
79. How were the pyramids made?
80. How was the sky made?
81. What is the sky?
82. What is deep under the ground?
83. Why were there dinosaurs?
84. Why did dinosaurs become extinct?
85. Who made wires?
86. Who made soccer balls?
87. Who made a soccer goal?
88. How do teeth fall out?
89. What does the tooth fairy do with the teeth?
90. How are pens made?
91. How does a dog’s fur grow?
92. How is glass made?
93. How does the Earth move when it is so large?
94. How do boats float?
95. Why do rocks sink?
96. Why are colors made?
97. How are books made?
98. How are engines made?
99. How was peanut butter invented?

What a Wonderful Profession!

This is how I get to end my job on a Friday! Not only was my day today confirmed by the following comments, but I was given a pebble. If you know about penguins, you will understand how important the pebble is to me! Wow! How wonderful is it to be a teacher?

"This is the best day ever!" -Anna
"Why is that?"-Josh
"Because not only do we get to do new literacy centers, but it is a music special day and that is my favorite special!"-Anna

"I'm so glad that you have taught me all this stuff about reading cause now I can read the magic treehouse books and they are so great!" -John S.

Fishy Halloween

Thanks to the Trout family who donated a wonderful pumpkin! We decided to decorate the orange fruit as a fish since the Trout family donated a pumpkin to the Haddock class! The children helped to paint our pumpkin as guided by the project's inspiration, Abigail! For Halloween, the fishy friend greeted trick-or-treaters at my house, only to get washed away by the rain that night!

Say No to Drugs

Here is a picture of our wonderful door designed and created by Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Campanini and the children! Our Red Ribbon Week was a huge success. The children created wonderful posters declaring "NO to Drugs!" We also enjoyed hugging our stuffed animal friends! Thanks to Ms. O'Connor for organizing the fun and educational week!

From Tadpole to Frog

Once again, our reading series led to some wonderful learning! Our story last week was Tadpole to Frog, a non-fiction selection detailing a frog's life. Nathan took his learning into his own hands and brought in some friends for us to observe! Hopefully he will continue to watch his friends in his backyard and let us observe some more as they transform.

I Went Walking (into the shadows)

This week provided several wonderful opportunities! First, on Tuesday, the Cocoa Beach Fire Department came to visit and talk about fire prevention and safety. Always a favorite, the children demonstrated terrific knowledge on the subject! Also on Tuesday we experienced the thrill of dramatic play!

Mrs. Henry was gracious enough to lend her services to our classroom in the creation of our first shadow puppet play. The students worked with her to create their own shadow puppets using plastic donated from Publix. These colorful puppets depicted animals of the student's choice. We then practiced our play "I Went Walking", based on our story from last week by Vera Williams. The students each had a turn to be an animal 'following' the main character.

All this week the students practiced and performed the play for several audiences. Our fifth grade big pals especially enjoyed our performance! The pictures show Mrs. Henry's shadow puppet theater. When you open the pictures bigger, you can see a hint of the puppets.

We enjoyed this experience so much! We thank Mrs. Henry for providing the opportunity to express ourselves in a creative and fun way!

Days of Our Lives

As we conclude our Days or Our Lives unit, it is interesting to hear the children's perspective on history and the people who came before us. Most of the students understood our central idea; people in history have an impact on our lives today. They understood the importance of their families, inventors, and of course presidents. When discussing our questions posed at the beginning of the unit, only two remained unanswered! (How is metal made? & How did Luci die? This is the documented first person ever to have existed.) Both of these questions will elicit some research at home I suppose!

Our discussions in class, ranging from the definition of the term history to why someone is named they way they are, were meaningful. I learned perhaps just as much as the children. This unit last year sparked in interest in reading biographies for myself, and thus I have ventured into the lives of George Washington and Ben Franklin. These kids amaze me everyday! For this, I am thrilled that they are a part of my "Days of Our Lives" episode!

Finally, it is interesting to synthesize the information gathered from the parent interviews. When asked if anything significant has happened in your life that is important to history, the following resulted:

Challenger Explosion
Martin Luther King Jr.
Columbia Explosion
The creation of the Internet
Creation of the European Union
First space shuttle
Fall of the Berlin Wall (3 responded)
9/11 (3 responded)
Neil Armstrong on the moon (6 responded)

Thank you for adding to our classroom discussions. These ideas sparked many different conversations in our classroom community.

Author Pictures

We discussed yesterday, the importance of details. While introducing the term adjective, (to add to our budding vocabulary), we talked about how authors paint pictures in our minds with words. Thus, our fantastic learning experience!

First, we illustrated the sentence The dog ran. After our comparisons, we realized that we all drew different dogs. Gabby had spots and John S's dog was very large! Then we illustrated the sentence The large black fluffy dog ran. Wouldn't you know, our dogs looked similar? The magic paintbrush of words!

We will continue to study this idea, of adding words or what authors commonly call "elaboration". Students will be encouraged to add details and be specific or elaborate, in their writing. Nathan's story about a friend named Gus has already improved!

As we continue to work on our writing, we will publish student pieces! (Oh, excuse me...First grade author's pieces!)

Grandparents Day

We had a terrific day today with our special guests! The children came in this morning wide-eyed and excited! Our guests arrived at 10:00 ready to share what life was like when they were younger. We began by sharing stories and then created a Venn Diagram to show how things have changed and what is still the same. Then we created family crests. These turned out wonderful! Finally, we shared in a wonderful feast provided by our guests and parents. The feast was a representation of traditional family recipes from our classroom!

Everyone seemed to really enjoy themseleves and a lot of learning took place! Although, I think simply having a grandparent or family member at school and sharing in some wonderful food was the best part for the children. We were all risk-takers and tried new foods! Here are some of the comments:

"I liked Alex's dad's food. I've tried them before, but he makes it better than Publix! Actually, they were the best!" -Ivan

"Today is the best day ever!" -Anna
"Why?"-student
"Because the coffee cake was so delicious!!!"-Anna

"I was excited about the grandparents coming!"-Alex

"There was a lot of things that they did back then. They did hula hoops and they had wooden desks. They had both wooden chairs and wooden desks!" -Carolyn

"Grandparents day was very fun becuase our grandparents came in and Anna and Michelle were a very big help. They helped me explain to my grandparents how to make the Venn Diagram."-Gabbrielle

"I liked Paige's peanut brittle!"-Chandler

"It was fun to have them here!"-Nathan

"The most fun was making family crest and lunch!"-Paige

It was fun making the Venn diagram. Back in the old times, it was only propeller planes but now it's jet planes."-John S.

"I learned to eat new stuff. I like the gingerbread cookies!"-Michelle


"I tried nachos and I really like it!"-Summer

I think we are all very full of both deeper knowledge and wonderful foods! Thank you to all who made this day such a success. I will post some pictures at a later time.

South African Visitors

Wow! We just had the most fantastic day! Three children from South Africa came to visit our classroom. Actually, there were a whole group of children that came and spent the day with others at our school. The three children in our room seemed to fit in perfectly! Everyone in our class welcomed them with open arms.

We learned a lot about South Africa and realized that we have many similarities and differences in our countries. The children were very interested in the sports that are commonly played in South Africa such as cricket and squash.

When our visitors left, we reflected on our day. Here are a few comments from the children:

“They were helpful.”
“They were good.”
“They had a good time.”
“We had a GREAT time.”
“They were lots of fun!”
“They were very kind!”
“They were nice!”
“They weren’t shy.”
“They were responsible!”

What a great way to learn about other's cultures! Why don't we all pack up and go travel!!!

Tolerance

We did a wonderful lesson on tolerance yesterday. After reading the book The Crayon Box, we created pictures using only one color. We discussed how boring life would be if this is all we had. We also discussed how people who are not tolerant may choose to see life in only one color. After much complaining, we finished our drawings and posted them on the board. We then created much kinder and happier pictures using many colors. The idea of tolerance was very vivid for our young learners!

Welcome!

Let's see how effective this form of communication will be! It's exciting to think that in 10 year's time, when this year's class is close to graduation, that technology will be even more impressive. There will be things that we can't even imagine. When I was in first grade, the Apple IIe just came out and we were using things like the ever impressive Print Shop to create signs and banners. I remember a friend of my mother's who started a business selling dot matrix banners that could be colored for things like birthdays (I had one) and other events. Now we have second graders with cell phones. I hope that this blog can be not only some reflections of our classroom learning, but a place for our first grade community to share thoughts and ideas.The new generation of technology is here and it's taking our kids with it!