My Biggest Inquiry Ever!

For those of you who have followed the blog for a while, you'll know that Mrs. Heins (our LEADS K teacher) and I have been doing an ongoing inquiry on the Appalachian Trail that culminates about every other summer with weekly hiking chunks of the trail and getting a few more miles under our belts.

These past three years I have been doing a big inquiry with my husband and I have kept Room 408 involved along the way this year. 

Just a few weeks ago my husband and I purchased our first sailboat after lots of research and changes in our life.

  It all started with a trip to Door County a few years ago when we took a daysail on the Edith M. Becker and started thinking about how we'd like to learn to sail.

After a lot of talking and thinking, we decided to move and reduce our mortgage so we could try and make this dream come true...which started a BIG sailboat inquiry!

We read a lot of sailing books, watched a lot of sailing videos, and researched on the internet during our Immersion Stage.  Soon we started investigating what it would take to get a sailboat of our own.  We talked to experts in the Investigation Stage, and this spring we did a learn to sail liveaboard program in Charleston, SC.  We lived aboard a beautiful sailboat and learned to sail on 25' and 44' sailboats, and got our American Sailing Association 101 & 103 certifications.

We soon coalesced our learning and narrowed our possible purchase down to four sailboats.  After a lo-o-ot of research this spring we ended up buying a 1979 30' Hunter Cherubini!  We entered our Going Public Stage and I took a personal day to sail our new boat from Sturgeon Bay to where we are docking her in Menominee, MI.  I sent pics to our substitute teacher throughout the day and Room 408 wished me well!

 Check our this beautiful view of the bay of Green Bay!

 Meet Untide docked safely in her new home!

Character Study

In Reading Workshop we have been focusing on and thinking deeply about the characters in our books and how they change, think and feel.
Here are just a few of our favorite characters!

Library Field Trip

May has been a month full of field trips!  We also went on a field trip to the Shawano County Public Library to find out about the summer reading program.

Click here to learn more about the summer reading program.

Sound & Light Research

We also got lost in a lot of sound and light research this month.  We have come across a lot of science words like transparent, translucent, opaque, vibrations, and bioluminescence!

NEW Zoo Field Trip

LEADS went on a field trip to the NEW Zoo this month.

Sound & Light Videos

We have been talking about how we can change how light and sound behave by using filters, mirrors, and different sized instruments.  We have also discovered that sound and light travel in waves.
Here are some amazing videos showing light and sound.

Sound and Light Stations

We started our Light & Sound Inquiry this month.  We immersed ourselves in light and sound stations.  We had everything from flashlights to instruments to our light table.  Watch the video below to see us exploring and learning about light and sound!

Petting Zoo!

Every year we get to go on a mini-field trip to the high school to see their Petting Zoo.  It's always an exciting time!

Here is a video with lots more pictures!

Planting Pumpkin Seeds

The Shawano County 4H program partners with the Shawano County Association for Home and Community Education (HCE) to provide all first graders at Hillcrest & LEADS with pumpkin seeds to plant.  Students are encouraged to bring home the pumpkin seeds we plant, take care of them all summer, and enter them in the Shawano County Fair in the fall.

Maybe one of our pumpkin plants will earn first prize!

Compound Words

During literacy workshop we are learning about compound words.  We can read, write, and spell by breaking apart words in smaller parts.
We brainstormed a big list of compound words.

We chose our favorite compound words and made books similar to this:

What is your favorite compound word?

Mrs. Melotik and Her Bead String

Mrs. Melotik came in and taught us about her "Expanding Expression" tool.  It looks like this:

It can help us move from simple words to detailed descriptions.  This is how it works:

We played a game while we practiced using the tool.

Thank you, Mrs. Melotik!

Geometry Math Games

We're working on geometry in our math workshop.
We're playing lots of games...

...new math stations...

...and we played the game, SET. It's a great critical thinking game.

A set is a group of 3 cards that have four kinds of features:  color, number, shape, and shade.  In the group of 3 cards, if all have the same property of each feature or all have different properties of the feature, it is a set.  It is easy to tell if something isn't a set...if 2 are and 1 isn't, it's *not* a set.

Here are some sets:

 In this one, they all have the same shape, shade, and number and have all different colors.  It is a set.

In this one, they have all different numbers, all different shapes, all different colors, all different shades, and all different numbers.

Here are some more examples:

The bottom is not a set.  It has all the same color, number and all different shapes, but two are the same shade and one isn't.  If two are and one isn't, it's not a set.

Can you find a set?