Hello Olympics!

The Olympics are drawing to a close but I still haven't shared about the fun we had for the opening ceremony! This would be tons of fun to do for the closing ceremony too. 

For some reason, because of the business of life, I didn't even realize that the opening ceremony was happening until the morning of! We were on our way to the library and the idea of making a fun party around the ceremony started churning in my head. We picked up a couple of books about the olympics and headed to the grocery store for some international snacks!

Before the ceremony we had our own olympics, including the marshmallow-on-a-spoon race and the cheerios stacking contest. Will and I wowed the boys with a marshmallow straw race. It was a good time! :)

Our main task of the day was coloring some flags to make a banner. I was pleasantly surprised with how much Alex enjoyed the activity! (Let's be honest, these kind of things can be totally hit or miss!) I had printed smaller flags in color so he was able to copy them quite easily! 

We had such great conversations during our coloring. He asked about the song that played when they showed the flag, so we talked about the Star Spangled Banner and how each country had their own special flag and song. We talked about the stars and stripes of the American Flag. He noticed similarities between the Australian and Great Britain flags along with the one 5 pointed star in the Australian flag. I love it when these natural conversations come up. Even Liam has been recognizing flags as we watch the olympics which has been fun. 

Our conversations got me wondering about how other countries chose their national anthems, what they mean, the variety of flags, and how the colors mean things to different countries. So much of that country identity is portrayed through their flag and anthem. I want to understand the things that make each country proud. Hopefully in 2 years we can inquire more in depth into some of those questions! 

Perfect for home or school! :)

Wordless Books

A great way to build inquiry into your writing is through wordless books! After reading the wordless book together, your kids can write the text to match the pictures. This guided inquiry give them the freedom to use their creativity and think outside the box. Some books are a little more straightforward then others, but each child has the opportunity to write their own dialogue, think about the character's feelings, and develop their tone for the story.

Here are some of my favorite wordless books! 

(Click on the picture to view on Amazon)

{one}

I discovered this one last year and it quickly became a favorite. There is so much room for wonder in this story and it would encourage the kids to think make sure that their word choices convey the emotions of the characters.

(two)

This books is a new discovery! The illustrations are stunning and the character's facial expressions help the kids understand his emotions and feelings. Another great idea for writing is to extend the story. Many wordless books have open endings that leave room for the imagination of what happens next!

{three}

This is a sweet story. I always love how the illustrators use color to draw your attention to the main idea of the story. That is a great way to get kids thinking about main idea and important details they need to write about.

{four}

This is the story that I first used in my writing class to add text to a wordless book! I love this one because the storyline can go so many different ways. Not a single one of us had the same story! I love how it shows such diversity of thought! Be sure to write with your students. They need to see their teacher being an inquirer as well! :)

{five}

The use of red in this book to draw your attention to the character is wonderful. The story continues in Quest. The detail in these books is wonderful. Her adventures could almost take up whole chapters! Might be a good extension for some of your high flyers! :)

{six}

I LOVE this book! Not only is it such a sweet story about siblings, hard work etc (so many learner profiles and attitudes are present) but it gives kids an opportunity to think about the importance of the endings of their stories.

As kids inquire their way through these stories and think deeply about their word choice, voice, and organization, they are growing as writers and thinkers! Wouldn't wordless books be a great way to introduce or practice the 6 traits?
Or think about the lively discussions you might have if kids defend their story choices based on the details in the pictures? There might be lots of persuasion going on there!
As you plan for the first weeks of school don't forget to include some wordless book fun in there! Such a great way to set the tone for your writing workshop by helping your kids to see that writers are inquirers too!

Of course there are LOTS more wonderful wordless books and the possibilities of ways to use them are endless. What are some of your favorite books? How do you use them in your room?

Five For Friday: Building Inquiry into the First Weeks of School

Summer. It's so lovely. But now that my August calendar is filling up, it's hard to realize July is almost over! The summer has been a good mixture of keeping busy and relaxing at home! 

This week I thought I would take a different approach than my normal Five for Friday! We are going with a theme! ;) 

This week we did a lot of fun science experiments at home this week and I was thinking about how they would be great experiments to introduce the idea of inquiry and the scientific process at the beginning of the school year. Kids need the opportunity to learn to ask questions and we need to give them some fun opportunities to build their questioning skills while also giving them opportunities to work together.

Lots of these are "what do you think will happen?" experiments, with great chances to build observation skills in the middle, but offer lots of room for "what ifs" after the experiment is over. The best inquiry experiments are ones that lead to more questions when it is over! ;) 

So. Here are FIVE fun experiments to try with your kids at school!

{one}

baking soda + food coloring + vinegar

This has been one of Alex's favorite experiments for a long time! I did it at school once two and the kids thought it was so amazing! :)

{two}

glass cups + water

We all know this one. ;) but we had a fun conversation about why there were different sounds. He had a little trouble figuring out how to do it, but overall it was fun to try!

{three}

bottle + yeast + water + balloon

This was really cool! Check out the link for the measurements. We didn't think it would work, and Will did double the measurements because we were using a bigger bottle.

http://tinkerlab.com/yeast-sugar-experiment/

{four}

hydrogen peroxide + dish soap + yeast + water + food coloring + bottle

Alex's reaction is so funny! :) He did play with the foam a bit after it was over. He noticed how warm the reaction was as well. Follow the link for more info!

http://www.funathomewithkids.com/2013/08/fun-science-experiment-for-kids.html

{five}

string + straw + balloon + lots of tape

The possibilities with this are ENDLESS! It would have been a fun to have races too. 

I thought these would be some fun ideas for the first weeks of school! It would also help your kiddos be really excited about school. 

See what other teachers are up to this week at Kacey's Five for Friday!

How the world works

I LOVE teaching science, but honestly, sometimes I feel bogged down with how to fit it all in. Especially In the way that flows best for my kids' learning needs and the direction of inquiry.

Before spring break we started our 5th unit of inquiry--how the world works. Our central idea is: Patterns are a natural occurrence.

After brainstorming some patterns we see in nature, we kind of landed on patterns in the sky for a while.

This led perfectly to our provocation--there is no more light! One morning, I kept all the lights off in the room and covered the windows with black paper. The kids were so confused when they came in. At one point we even closed the door so there was only a tiny bit of light coming from the window in the door. It was dark! But we could still see a little bit and one of the kids pointed out it was because there was still some light in the room. I asked them what they thought the world would be like if there was NO sun. I wrote down their remarks in the dark and transferred it to a chart when we turned the lights back on. They had a lot of great thoughts and it led us to some areas to continue to take our learning.

Later that morning when we started our read to self time (and because it suddenly felt so bright in the room!), one of the kids noticed that the sun was reflecting off of the cover of her book. One of the boys pointed out it was a reflection and it was a PERFECT connection to when we read The Moon Book by Gail Gibbons later that morning. The kids really understood how the Moon does not make it's own light but reflects the sun thanks to our earlier demonstration! :)

We proceeded to start tracking the moon phases to notice the patterns there, and we have done a lot more with the sun, moon, light, shadows, etc.

BUT we are not totally done. The kids kept talking about how we need the sun so plants will grow, and I wanted to start growing some stuff, so I shifted us on to plants a little more, just by the books I put out during read to self time etc. It was a little hard to make the shift, but today we finally immersed ourselves in the world of seeds and plants.

Today was one of the days where I felt like I was able to really integrate my science and reading block together. We did shared reading using a  text from Reading A to Z about how seeds grow. During workshop, the kids were reading plant books during read to someone and writing down words worth noticing. There was a group using some books to help make some predictions about what kind of seeds were in the bags, and the writing group was beginning to draw a picture of what the playground would be like with no light (they will start writing in the next day or two).

Then we used our writing block to start our plant journals. We made some predictions, wrote down some questions, made some initial observations about our seeds before "planting" them and making more predictions. You can grab a free copy of our journals {here}!

Because we are in that tricky time of year when attention spans wane, and active levels go WAY up, it makes the need for hands on, engaging lessons so much more important! I want to work really hard these next several weeks to better integrate my ELA standards into our inquiry unit so that the kids are applying their reading and writing skills in more authentic situations.
Next week is going to center around the parts of a plant, so hopefully the kids will learn a lot through the integration and have a fun time learning in the process! :)

Don't forget to get your plant journal freebie!

Building Inquiry Into Your Teaching!

Building inquirers helps our students become more creative and think critically when it comes to solving problems. Fortunately, there are a lot of things that we can do and ARE doing to help our kids become world changers! In the primary grades, there are lots of simple things we can do to encourage creativity and thinking instead of giving them all the information up front. I'm certainly not an expert, but here are a couple of easy things I will be making sure I do as I get the kids back into the school routines!

one: practice asking questions. 

Kids don't always know how to ask questions. Or they get stuck in a rut of asking the same kind of question over and over again. A great way to practice is using family pictures, or things that the kids bring in. Having a sharing time is perfect too! When kids get to practice asking those good thick questions with topics they are familiar with, they feel more comfortable asking questions about the unknowns.

two: you make the rule.

I use word/number sorts in stations a lot. Once they get the hang of it, I sometimes leave out the headers and let them make the sorting rule. It is interesting to see the connections kids might make with different words that we might not think of. Or how they group numbers together as opposed to what the directions might have said. Kids need the opportunity to think outside the box. We are still giving them some guidance, but allowing them to make the connections.

three: creative writing

Writing prompts are all fine and good, but we also need to let kids explore ideas. Two favorite books I like to use are The Squiggle and Not a Box  They both help scaffold the kids in coming up with ideas, but serve as a great spring board for them to come up with new creative ideas. I have been amazed at some of the things the squiggle turns into! Getting back into the routine of school would be a great time to get kids thinking outside the box!

four: make a parking lot

Kids are always asking questions, some times it is a good time to ask, other times, there just isn't enough minutes to explore the question all the way! Add the question to the parking lot! That way the student still feels like their question is important and you are continuing to foster the culture of inquiry. Make sure you make a time to look for the answers at another time. Save some time of Fridays or using it as a writing/research activity, or independent work stations.

five: debrief

At the end of a lesson, talk as a class about what you learned, any questions they have, and what they want to learn next. The more kids talk, the more you can learn what kind of connections they are making. We won't ever know how deep (or not) the kids' understandings go unless we talk about it on a daily basis! To be honest, this is what I forget to do the most, the rush to lunch or related arts takes over and we don't take the minutes to reflect. But I hope that slowing down and talking more about our learning will help us become better inquirers! 

Good luck heading back to school! 

Composting!

What I love about guided inquiry as a teacher is that I can GUIDE the direction a bit... I've always wanted to try composting-- at home and at school, and after we read the book:

we continued the conversation about food waste and composting, and I was REALLY hoping that someone would suggest we try composting....

Thankfully someone did! :)

So I told the kids that I didn't know too much about it, so we would spend some time researching it in the classroom to figure out how to do it! The kids had some basic background knowledge, thanks mostly to Peppa Pig's episode about composting. Another boy kept saying Worm

s, Worms.... (not going there quite yet!)

The night before I did a little online research to get started, but it was a process that we were really going to do together. In my mind, this was a going to be a "fun" day, off of our regular schedule. Little did I realize how this "fun" experience was really an authentic learning experience that allowed us to apply a lot of skills that we have been learning in the classroom. As I think back I probably could have planned out those moments better, but now I know and plan to do a lot more of this in the classroom!

We started the morning talking about how we research (CCSS W.1.7) We talked about how we could can use the internet or the library. We googled our question "How do you compost?" and started watching videos, reading some websites, and looking at images to find information (CCSS RI.1.6).

Then we wrote down some of our notes and findings:

Then we took a trip to our library. There we talked about where we should look for our books about composting--in the Fiction or Non Fiction section. The kids all shouted out nonfiction because we needed real books and ones that give information. (CCSS RL.1.5) That was good for my heart to hear that all those conversations about fiction vs. non-fiction were helping them apply it when they needed it! Then we learned more about the dewey decimal system and went in search of some books!

When we got back to classroom, I told the kids that I didn't want to read the whole book to see if it talked about composting and wondered what I should use to figure it out... That of course led us to nonfiction text features! (CCSS RI.1.5) I students suggested I look at the table of contents, but when that didn't give us enough information, i suggested we look a the index. That was a feature they had trouble understanding the purpose of, but after this experience, they definitely understand how that will help us! If the book didn't have either feature, we did a quick picture glance to find out the info.

 Then we started focusing on the recipe for composting and we found out we needed some browns and greens. The kids got a little confused when thinking that the object did not have to be brown or green to count as that kind of material, but they worked in groups to make a list of some things they could start collecting.

We collected food scraps from breakfast and lunch over the next couple days. We also gathered pine straw and dead leaves from outside. 

I found this resource that was helpful to me in figuring out how to do this small scale (classroom bin instead of an outside one). We do have a composter bin at school, but I am not ready to go large scale yet. 

Friday we made the compost recipe! 

We did a little bit more brown materials-- I read that it would help the smell not be so overwhelming. Every couple of days we need to stir it up a bit. I have no idea how it will turn out and really hope that it doesn't invite a lot of bugs into the classroom this weekend, but it was a great learning experience!! I am excited to see how this helps us change our thinking about food waste over the year. Once challenge is the fact that we are collecting a lot of the same types of food, so that can affect the balance. 

If anyone is an expert in composting and wants to share some advice, we would love to learn more!

I'm excited to incorporate more authentic learning experiences into our weeks. It is so important to help the kids see why what they learn is important and they were all so engaged I did not have to have some of the behavior conversations that I normally did!

I'm curious to find out on Monday what kind of conversations they will have with their families about the experience. In the days we have been focusing on food waste, I have been a lot more conscious of all the compostable materials I am throwing away! We are never too old to keep learning and reflecting!