Our First Inquiry!

  We have been learning about the life of the researcher, Jane Goodall.

For our first inquiry, we started wondering about Jane by looking at some photographs.

We started to have lots of questions.

We started thinking about how we can learn from various sources. Some great ways to learn are through photographs, PebbleGo, and books. Each of us started learning about Jane by choosing how we were going to start our own research.

Declan, Delilah, and Braxton comparing research of similar findings.

They were so excited to have all found information about Jane's chimpanzee stuffed animal!

Kendrick is recording his research off of PebbleGo.

Braxton found out that she lived in a tent.

Mason found the same thing in a National Geographic magazine!

Piper is being told that she can confirm her prediction that she thought she liked animals, because Braxton found a magazine cover that said, "Animal Scientist and Activist."

Franklin is focused in his research.

Asher recorded so much research, his clipboard is full!

Delilah and Mason are comparing information across lots of print sources.

So many great conversations happen as they share their research with each other.

We got together as a big group to share and compare our findings about Jane.

Everyone was so proud of all our hard work as researchers!

We then read the book The Watcher, which told us more about how Jane accomplished her dream to work and study with chimpanzees in Gombe, Africa.  We also got some of our questions answered!

Jane was not only a researcher, but also a writer.  She kept piles and piles of research in her tent when she was working with the chimpanzees.

We learned that one of her favorite chimp companions was named David Greybeard.

However, after many years Jane realized that the chimpanzees she loved were in danger of becoming extinct.  She realized that the best way to help the chimpanzees was to share their story with the world.

Jane Goodall is an excellent example of the 3 A's:  Activism, Awareness, and Aid.  When we do our inquiries this year, Room 408 will keep these 3 A's in mind.

This is a National Geographic video that we watched so we could see Jane in action:

What inspires you about Jane Goodall?

Small Moment Stories

 In Writer's Workshop we talked about our writing topics. We read two books by Donald Crews. 

The first one is called BigMama's, and it is about how when Donald Crews was little he spent a few weeks each summer at his grandma and grandpa's house.

Then we read the book Shortcut, and found out that this story was about one specific memory that happened one of those summers that Donald Crews spent at Bigmama's.

We are trying to write about specific memories, just like Donald Crews did in his book, Shortcut.

We talked about how some ideas are too big, like a watermelon.

Within a big idea, though, there are lots of little seed ideas.

For example, school is a too-big watermelon idea, but one seed idea would be our memory about when the fire alarm went off right before gym. Another seed idea would be when Lydia got stronger at the monkey bars . We can be really specific and add good details when we write a seed idea story.

Can you give an example of a too big watermelon idea, and then a specific memory like a seed idea?

Wonder Wednesday: Sharks

 It's Wonder Wednesday!

Today Mystery Doug has us wondering about the relationship between sharks and people.

We wrote our thoughts in our Think Books and shared our thinking with each other.

What do you think? Do you think most sharks would try to eat a person?

Setting Reading Goals

We have been working on building our reading stamina.  We read the book Marathon Mouse by Amy Dixon.

Preston was a mouse who wanted to run the New York City marathon but no one thought he could do it.  We googled the NYC marathon so we could see how challenging it would be for a mouse.

Would you like to be a mouse running amid a sea of sneakers?

He worked hard, practiced, and got stronger as a runner.  He finally completed his marathon!

Room 408 talked about how we can build our reading stamina just like Preston built his running stamina.  We set goals for ourselves and stacked our books on one side of our folder, and as we finished a book we placed it on the other side and became marathon readers!

We read for almost 30 minutes straight!

Happy reading!

Just Like Goldilocks

 We have been enjoying lots of books by Paul Galdone, including The Three Bears.

Today as readers, we tried to pay attention to how it feels when we read a book.  We used the Goldilocks Theory to check:  is the book too hard, too easy, or juuuust right?  This is what our Reading Workshop goal board looked like...

As we read a book we sorted them into three piles:  too easy, too hard, or juuuust right.

We are excited, because many of us are just starting to read!  It felt so good to find books that are filled with words we can read.

At the end of Reading Workshop, Room 408 discussed how it felt when a book was too hard, too easy, or juuuust right.

Next week we'll be zeroing in on just right books in our library and finding books where we can read LOTS of words.

We are strong readers!

Challenging Our Math Brains

 Sometimes during Number Corner we come up with equations to match how many days we have been in school. This is a great way to challenge every growing math brain, whether our equation for day 16 is 

16 + 0

100-84 or

5+5+5+1

We use our days in school grid to help us create equations.

Look at all our great equations!

Workshops

After assessments were completed, we were finally able to start our workshops!

We learned that we'll have a workshop for each subject that we learn. 

We started studying what strong writers and readers do during Reading and Writing Workshops.

Check out our writing focus!

We have reading focus, too! We loved reading to our partners.

When we work hard in workshops, our brains grow stronger!