Research Clubs Coming Up!

Room 408 has been busy immersing ourselves in our space research.  Our brains have been like sponges soaking up all this new information!

We have been recording our wonders and our learning...

We have downloaded lots of great space apps...

We had so much research that we needed to make Space Research Folders.  As we decorated our research folders we started noticing how our schema is already growing in the 2 weeks of immersion in space research!

Then we went right back to researching!

Now that we are nearing the end of the Immersion Stage and about ready to enter the Investigation Stage, we are getting ready for our small group research clubs.  After sharing our lingering questions we chose our top three choices for research clubs by ranking them on this form.

Tune in tomorrow to find out about our final research clubs.  After we take a few weeks to investigate our topics further, we'll go public with our learning--we're looking forward to teaching others in our space presentations!

International Space Station

Here are some videos about life aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Doubles 6-10

A few weeks ago we started focusing on the doubles where the sums ten or less.

A few days ago we started investigating doubles where the sums are up to 20.



I recently found a newer version that includes all the doubles in one video!

A Field Trip Through the Universe

Alligator Greater

We have been comparing numbers using the greater than and less than signs.  This is a fun song we heard in class to help us remember which way the sign goes.

Space Cycles

So far in our research we have investigated the day & night cycle, as well as the moon cycle.  Here are some great videos that helped us visualize and learn about these cycles.

Room 408 is already noticing the cycles of our Earth and space!

Space Schema

During the immersion phase of our space inquiry, it is important to think about our schema, or what we think we know.

We drew and wrote about our space schema.

Later, we grabbed some books and our learning/wonder recording sheets and our brains soaked up space information like sponges as we started our research!

We're off to a good start!

Cycles

This month we started discussing and noticing cycles.  Earlier in the year we had already been noticing the life cycles plants, particularly when we discussed our Learning & Growth Rubric.

We are now realizing that a cycle is anything that happens over and over again.  Or, in the words of Room 408:

We read the following book to get us brainstorming about cycles.

We brainstormed some great cycles!  Here are a few:  

• going to sleep and waking up
• coming to school and having Morning Meeting
• Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer
• people growing up and having kids who will also grow up to have kids

In the book we also learned about how sea turtles go back to the same beach where they were born and laying their own eggs which will hatch into sea turtles.  Of course, then we had to read this book!

This book describes the life journey (and cycle!) of the loggerhead turtle.

If you're interested to see some hatchlings, check out these videos:

Here is a leatherback sea turtle and the nesting process.



We will be thinking about cycles a lot in the month to come as we work on our space inquiry!

November Learning Mural Day!

December 1st was the day that we reflected on our November learning, and noticed how our brains are growing in first grade.

Each child chose a topic and invited another student to collaborate on the project.  We are getting better and better at our collaboration skills!  I observed lots of planning together, asking questions, making compromises, and encouraging each other.

Here is our finished mural...

We are also so excited to start our space inquiry that we included that in 3D, as well!

Happy Learning in the coming month of December, Room 408!

Inquiry!

To help the students get a deeper understanding of inquiry, I shared Mrs. Heins' and my Appalachian Trail experiences.

First, we learned about the four stages of inquiry.

We learned that the first inquiry stage is Immersion, where our brains are like sponges soaking up new information.

When Mrs. Heins and I started thinking about hiking on the Appalachian Trail, we soaked up as much information we could by reading books and watching videos.

The next stage is Investigation, where we search for answers to our lingering questions and record our research so we don't forget it.

Mrs. Heins and I had to research the kind of equipment we needed and figure out what part of the trail we wanted to tackle!

After we Investigate, we Coalesce our learning by thinking about Big Ideas and sorting/categorizing our learning.

Mrs. Heins and I got together and practiced hiking in the woods by her house and discussed the research we had done about the equipment for the trail.  We even practiced with our equipment!

Finally, we Go Public with our learning by sharing our new schema with others and creating visuals to help us teach.

Mrs. Heins and I went on our hike!  We hiked most of the Georgia portion of the Appalachian Trail!  We were so proud!

This past summer we visited the trail again and hiked in the Smoky Mountains.

How have you used inquiry in your life?  What did you do research in order to learn?