Happy Wonder Wednesday!

 Today for Wonder Wednesday we wondered about jellyfish:

On Wonder Wednesdays we predict our ideas and record them in our Think Books.

Here are our predictions!

Wonder Window

We have been studying Albert Einstein (and have of course noticed his hair):

We read a few books about Einstein and his life as a scientist.  

We learned that he studied light, sound, and space...just like we will this year!  He is a reader, a writer, a mathematician, a scientist, and a researcher, but most of all--a thinker.  

When we read On a Beam of Light we learned that he was very unique.  He didn't speak until he was almost four, and started wondering about our world when his father gave him a compass.  He asked LOTS and LOTS of questions--so many that his teachers thought he was trouble.  ;)

He is a perfect person to study for LEADS because he is so full of questions.

Here is a short video so you can see him in action:

One of our notebooks is designated as our "Think Book" and his picture is on the front. 

Today we wondered about our world and wrote down our wonders on sticky notes.

Once we completed a wonder, we posted it on our Wonder Window.

We have so many wonders!

Eventually we will use our Genius Hour to try and answer some of these great questions!

What are you wondering about our world?

Observations!

 This morning while the kids were arriving they noticed and observed a flock of turkeys. What great observers!

I love how our classroom window overlooks nature. Happy Inquiry!

Genius Hour

 Today we had a bit of time to start 'Genius Hour.' This is a time when we can research anything we want to learn more about and create a project to represent our learning and teach others.

We had friends learning about nutrition, headaches, chimpanzees, dinosaurs, money, and more!

Check out these focused researchers:

We love learning and researching!

Talking Partners

 We missed out on Wonder Wednesday this week, so instead we had Thinking Thursday!  We wondered about roller coasters and why people don't fall out when they go upside down.

We are also working on our collaboration skills. An important part of collaboration is listening to your partner.

Today we fine-tuned our Turn & Talk skills while discussing Mystery Doug and roller coasters.

Talk is an important part of our learning!

Hopes & Dreams

 We are going public with our Hopes & Dreams!

 Normally we have families come in for our Hopes & Dreams conferences so that each child can share his/her hopes and dreams, the family can share their hopes and dreams for the child, and the teacher can share her hopes and dreams for the child. Unfortunately, due to COVID, our in-person conferences were canceled. However, we will still be sharing our hopes and dreams through a shared document. 

During the first few weeks of school we drew and wrote about what we're excited about learning in first grade, as well as what we want to be when we grew up. We hung these as balloons from the classroom ceiling:

To make it fun, we got our pictures taken looking like we're holding onto the string of the balloon:

We look forward to sharing our hopes and dreams!

Our First Learning Mural!

 On the first school day of each new month, we will reflect on our learning from the previous month.

Our brains are growing more than we realize!

First, when we do a learning mural, we brainstorm all the ways that our brains grew in the last month.  In this case, this is our brainstorm list of all the ways our brains grew in September:

We were amazed to see how much learning we have already done in just 21 days!!!

Next, we chose a topic to create, and invited someone to collaborate with us. We talked about our plan, first.

Then we work on that one topic and collaborate to create a representation of that learning, using the materials in our classroom.

We made a label to add to our projects to make our learning clear.

When we finished one project, we crossed that off the list and chose a new one.

We are going to watch a few short ant videos--even ants collaborate to get work done!

 Here is our first completed Learning Mural!

What has been your favorite part of learning so far this year?