Each child in Room 408 has a Personal Word Wall filled with words we need to know in a "snap."
Words that each child can spell in a "snap" are highlighted on their Personal Word Wall.
A few times a week the student chooses a word to work on that is not highlighted. S/he makes the word in a variety of ways in hopes of learning the word so s/he can access it in a "snap" when s/he is reading or writing.
Lydia makes 'like' with Wikki Stix.
Delilah makes 'I'm' with shells.
Asher checks his personal word wall to make sure he records 'before' correctly.
Mason makes 'on' with beans.
Quill makes 'we' with dominoes.
Thatcher makes 'have' with legos.
Declan uses the Word Wizard app to work on 'because.'
Then we take pictures to document our hard work.
The next morning 100% of the class could remember and spell their snap word correctly. Great job, Room 408! 🎉
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:
