Welcome!

Hello, new 1st graders and LEADS families!
This blog is a place where you can catch up on what your child is learning in Room 408.  We'll post lots of links, videos, learning activities, and information through our classroom blog.  Feel free to share our classroom blog with family members, friends, and anyone you think might be interested in our learning.

Right now I am busy getting our classroom ready for our year of learning, working, and playing together.  We'll be using our literacy skills through studying topics like light and sound, plants and animals, and earth and space.  If you are interested in our specific learning objectives, feel free to visit the Next Generation Science Standards by clicking on the links that are highlighted when your mouse hovers over the topics in the previous sentence.  If you are interested in learning more about the Common Core State Standards, click on this link.

At LEADS, we believe in living a life of inquiry-based learning.  Last year Mrs. Heins (our LEADS Kindergarten teacher) and I decided to do an inquiry about the Appalachian Trail.  From December to June, we researched section-hiking the Appalachian Trail.  We decided that we wanted to hike for about a week in Georgia in July.  We did an inquiry, researching everything from backpacks to local wildlife.  We ended up hiking about 56 miles in 6 days, doing a major Georgia portion of the trail.

We filtered our drinking water...

...pitched our own sleeping arrangements... (our favorite was "cowboy camping" under the Super Moon)

and basically kept ourselves alive.  :)  

We even avoided bears by singing as we hiked! (Although Mrs. Heins was more brave and a better singer than I was.)

The people we met on the trail were surprised to find out that this was our first time backpacking.  We were able to be so successful because of all the research we did to prepare, using our inquiry skills along the way.  

My hope is to lead your child into school in a way that will make learning meaningful in their lives.  Our early schooling years should inspire and support us for lifelong quest for learning, and I believe that LEADS can accomplish that.  I look forward to a great year!

See you tomorrow night at our Back to School Fest!