November Learning Mural

It's that time, again! It seems like we were just working on our October mural, and now November is already over.

There was not a shortage of ideas...in fact, Room 408 was wondering how we would fit all our learning on such a small mural (the mural stretches along our timeline and we didn't have as many days of school in November, so it wasn't as long as other months).

Here is the finished product:

Today we used our sunrise/sunset app to research how many hours of daylight we have had each month since school started. Then we graphed our data.

We were surprised to find out that the amount of daylight has been getting less and less each month.

Jill made a connection and was able to teach the class how our earth is not getting as much direct light at this time of year.

We wonder what January will be like!

Earth & Space Immersion

For the past few weeks we have been immersing our selves in anything we could find about space.  We talked about how in this first stage in inquiry, called Immersion, our brains are like sponges--soaking up everything we can about Earth & Space.
We started with a "Reading Frenzy" where we explored lots of books about Earth & Space.

We learned about special apps on our ipads:

We used PebbleGo as a source for information:

And all the while we recorded wonders, answered wonders, and gathered new learning:

Adding to our "New Learning" charts

When we found an answer to a wonder, we attached the answer to the pink wonder sticky note.

Sometimes our new learning was pretty amazing!

Enjoy this video showcasing the Immersion Phase in our Earth & Space Inquiry:

Nonstandard Measurement

We started off our morning by adding Anderson's wonder, lifted from our Wonder Window, as our question for the day in our morning message:

We also found out through the morning message that we would be measuring with popsicle sticks in math.  Part of the Common Core Standards for math engages kids with measurement by using nonstandard units to understand that length means a number of smaller same-size units laid end-to-end with no gaps or overlaps.  This will help us understand measurement more deeply later when we use the standard measurements of inches and centimeters on a ruler.

We measured *lots* of things in our classroom with popsicle sticks.  

We measured tables...

bookcases...

huge rugs...

chairs...

double tables...

windowsills...

 ...and even each other!

We estimated before we took an actual measurement and then recorded our results in little booklets.

What could you measure with at home that is a nonstandard unit?

Space Schema

We activate our schema before we enter into a big inquiry, too!  We started our Earth & Space Systems inquiry by brainstorming our schema (what we think we know) about the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, and Space:

We also talked about how sometimes we have a "file" in our head that is wrong.  That is called a "misconception."  Sometimes we have to delete that "file" and make a new "file" in our brain with the new learning.

Room 408 also took some time to do a representation of our schema about space by drawing and writing about it:

Of course, all of this made us start to wonder...so we wrote our wonders on sticky notes and got our Wonder Window up and running.

One of our wonders:  How many Earths can fit in the sun?

Sophia and her mom did some research one weekend.  Sophia shared her moon phases project with Room 408.  Very cool!

What do you wonder about Earth and its place in our universe?

Sleepover Schema

We have been discussing schema: what we have in our brains to help us understand what we're reading about or what we're talking about.  We learned that active readers use their schema to help them understand a book more deeply.  For example, we read the book Ira Sleeps Over and activated the schema that we had in our brain about sleepovers.

We shared a paper with our reading partner and drew the connections we had to the story:  one partner drew their connection on one half of the paper and the other partner drew their connection on the other half.

As we worked and drew our connections to the story, we realized that our schema was different from our partner's schema.  This helped us understand the story more deeply and made our discussions more interesting. 

What schema would you activate before you read this book about canoeing?

The Goldilocks Theory

We have been talking about choosing books for Reading Workshop.  We have been discussing how we know when a book was too easy, too challenging, or just right.  We sorted books we read on how it felt when we read them.

One of the kids in Room 408 piped up and said, "That's just like Goldilocks!"

Room 408 is so good at making connections.  Teagan came in and said that she thought of books selection as she was in the shower...first the water was too hot (like books that are too easy), then too cold (like books that are too challenging), and finally it was just right!

Andrew had some deeper thinking as he realized that two of his book choices were from the same leveled basket but one was much more challenging than the other:

He shared that he didn't know a whole lot about the ocean, so the Bella & Rosie book was challenging.  However, he did know a lot about deer so that book seemed just right.

After we read and sorted our books, of course we had to talk about them with our partners!

How can you tell if a book is too challenging?