Exploration Celebration

Tonight was the big night!  Our Exploration Celebration is a time to share some of the inquiry projects we have worked on throughout the year, and it is also the evening that we share some concert music.  It's a time of food, friends, and family!

Our Georgia O'Keeffe artwork:

Our Matisse artwork:

Some of our life-sized animals:

I didn't get everyone's life-sized animals, so I will make another post later!
It was a busy night!

LEADS did a great job at the concert!

Animal Teachers

Room 408 is learning about animal teachers.  We learned that sometimes animals are born knowing what to do (instincts).  Sometimes animals need to be taught how to survive.
We read a few books to get some insight:

 Of course, Steve Jenkins has a book about this topic, too!

Here are some videos that we watched to see how animals are teachers to their young:

The one that melted our hearts was this one:

Dick Proenneke

We have been reading Little House on the Prairie during our Snack/Read Aloud time.

The Ingalls family traveled all the way from the big woods of Wisconsin to a homestead near Independence, Kansas.

We have gotten to one of my favorite parts of the book, which is when Pa builds their log cabin.

Undoubtedly at this point in the book after seeing the above picture, one of the kids makes a connection about Lincoln Logs.

I pulled out the Lincoln Logs from our storage room and the kids started building and exploring. 

Here is a picture of the re-creation of Little House on the Prairie in Kansas, near Independence.

Next, I introduced them to a movie about a man named Dick Proenneke.  

He was a man who decided to test himself to see if he could live off the land, all alone in Alaska.  He built a cabin from scratch, using only hand tools--he brought the steel parts of the tools, but even built the handles of the tools with local wood.  We learned that he was a mathematician when he measured and constructed the cabin, as well as a writer because he recorded his life and experiences in journals.

Today we got to see him building his cabin in the documentary Alone in the Wilderness.

The kids were in awe as we watched him chop and saw, carry tree trunks, construct his log cabin, build a fireplace, make furniture...just like Pa in Little House on the Prairie!

To learn more about Dick Proenneke and his adventures in the Alaskan Wilderness:

click these words to learn more about purchasing the documentary

click these words to learn more about his life

click these words to be taken to the National Park website where his cabin is located

click these words to go to a youtube search for various videos about Dick Proenneke

or watch this youtube video below:

Do you think you could do something like Dick Proenneke?

More Little House Connections...

I love showing the kids pictures and videos that help bring Little House in the Big Woods alive for them.
Before reading the 'Dance at Grandpa's' chapter, I shared a video about square dancing with Room 408.

When I was little, we learned how to square dance in gym...many kids today don't even know what square dancing is!  However, Kaylene's family actually held a square dance at their farm and she was able to share her experiences, as well.

In one of the final chapters of the book, Laura writes about the threshing machine that Pa hires to help with the wheat.  Here is the video that I shared with them:

We're already excited to read the next book, Little House on the Prairie!

Charlotte's Web

We finished our most recent chapter book read aloud today, Charlotte's Web.  No matter how many times I read that book (over 20 and counting!) I always get tears when Charlotte dies.


We learn so much about friendship and spiders when we read this book!

Here are a few pictures and spider videos that we watched to be able to visualize different parts of the book.

Wow Learning

Every fact that the students find is such an a-ha moment. It is so exciting to see them discover learning.
They have found out cool facts such as the fact that our sun is only a small star, Pluto has been demoted to "dwarf planet" status, there is no gravity in space, the space shuttle is HUGE, and the moon reflects sunlight.

I shared these videos with them to get them thinking more deeply about how little we are in our world...



...how amazing our space exploration program is...


...zero gravity is so cool!

 Happy Researching!

Jane Goodall

We have been learning about the life of the researcher, Jane Goodall.
We started learning about Jane by reading a book about when she was little.  She always loved animals and was very patient and determined when she observed them.

We learned that when Jane was little she had a stuffed toy chimpanzee named Jubilee.

We began to wonder about Jane.  These were some of the questions we had:

We also 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 were able to answer some of our questions!

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 before writing entries about Jane in our Think Books. 

What inspires you about Jane Goodall?

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.

Are Zoos Good or Bad?

At the end of our animal inquiry, we got into a discussion about zoos.
We know Jane Goodall and responded to the question in our morning message.

Everyone thought Jane Goodall would like zoos.

Then we watched a few videos.  One listed the pros and cons of zoos, one tried to convince us that zoos are bad, and another tried to convince us that zoos are good.

Some agreed that zoos were helpful, some thought animals were better off in their own habitats, and some had a mixture of opinions.  We got together with partners and discussed our feelings and opinions.

Next we shared our ideas with the group.

Finally, we took some private time and wrote our opinions about zoos in our Think Books.

Finally, we watched part of this video to see what Jane Goodall really thinks about zoos.

Penguins & Math

During math we took an imaginary trip to Antarctica.

Here is a video that we watched about Antarctica.

We made special measuring tapes to find out our height.

We did a few mini-inquiries about different types of penguins, comparing sizes of different penguins.

First, we learned about Rockhopper penguins.

We researched information about them. Then we used a measuring strip that we made equal to our heights, and compared it to the height of the Rockhopper penguin. 

We learned that the Rockhopper is 18 inches tall.

We loved this video about the Rockhopper penguin:

The next day we learned about the King penguin.  We found out that it is 3 feet tall, and figured out that 3 feet is the same as 36 inches.

That's a big penguin!

Here is the video we watched about the King penguin.


Next we will compare these heights to the Emperor penguin.

Which is your favorite penguin?