A Moon made out of Oreo's!

In the middle of our inquiry unit, I asked the children what kind of changes they wanted to learn about next. Once a kid in our class wondered about space and how the moon changes, it was game over with any other ideas because of the enthusiasm involved!

So, we WONDERED about how the moon changes. 

The children's prior knowledge about this line of inquiry was interesting! 

Next, we took ACTION and EXPLORED online about how the moon changes. 

"I'M CONFUSED!" To further investigate and DISCOVER into this phenomenon, we had to borrow globes and flashlights from the Science department of my husband's high school (where he also teaches Science!) We also had to add Oreo's into the mix!

The children's understanding of the changes that the moon experiences sky rocketed with the Oreo demonstration. They were able to conduct the Oreo experiment with a partner and talk (REFLECT) about the changes to others. Now, when you ask them about how the moon changes, they'll be able to shed light on this topic.

What can you do with milk & vinegar?

The children came to school with many wondering questions when they saw the front table with milk, vinegar, measuring tools and a bowl on it.

The children followed the very precise procedure in our Science experiment. 

Action/Explore:  Boil a cup of milk. Measure 4 teaspoons of vinegar into mug.

 

Pour milk into mug and stir ingredients together.

 

Use a strainer to drain excess liquid out.

 

Scoop the solid out.

After all of the liquid was drained from the solid, the kids formed the 'dough-like' substance into a shape of their choice by using a cookie cutter. They made tree ornaments.

When we completed the experiment, we talked about what we made. The children at this point, didn't know that they made plastic. Further exploration online was required to fill in the gaps. They also made the connection to our symmetry unit...the ornaments are 'equal shmequal!' 

Discover/Explore/Reflect:  So many changes happened during our experiment! We made plastic like in the olden days!!

Diorama Galore!

"Shoe boxes...calling all shoe boxes!"

The children have been inquiring into how/which animals change colour and/or shape for the past week. It all started with a reader that a group read about how octopus can change shape and colour. This sparked the students' curiosity into further action and exploration. 

We discovered that four animals either change shape or colour in our investigation. Below are our findings!

To share their new learning, the children were in for a real treat when they brought in their old shoe boxes. Talk about recycling! The kids changed their shoe box into their chosen animal's habitat.  Some of the animals were hard to find as they changed and were camouflaged within their surroundings. 

Symme-TREE...TREE...TREE!

To start our exploration on symme-tree (see what we did there!?), the children read the book called, Equal Shmequal, by Virginia Kroll. This really helped the kids to understand how symmetrical objects have equal-shmequal sides.

To further investigate this phenomenon, the students created symmetrical butterflies by first painting only half of the insect. Then, they folded the sides together to complete the beautiful butterfly. Wow! The butterfly patterns are exactly the same on both sets of wings!

To challenge the children even further, I had the children draw the other side of their face! Once the kids received their picture very excitedly, I told them that they had to cut their face in half! Afterwards, they carefully drew the other side of their face, making sure to include an eye, an ear and the other half of their nose and lips. They turned out very well!

Lastly, we conducted a Science experiment where we turned milk and vinegar into plastic. Once the ingredients were mixed, the children molded the dough-like material into symmetrical, or equal-shmequal, ornaments made out of cookie cutters. 

Our room was radiating symme-tree-tree-tree objects!

The Gruff...Gruff...Gruffalo!

I found out this past week that an all time favourite book of my kids is, The Gruffalo. Many could read the book from memory! Well, I found this little treasure in our resource room as a BIG book! WIN, WIN! We can all be teachers while reading the book!



A graph was created to discover the students' favourite character. We also analysed the results.



The children wrote and described their favourite character by using WOW words; just like how the author did in the book with the Gruffalo.



For Art, the kids made a mask of their favourite character.

Fox

Mouse

Snake

Owl

To retell the sequence of events that happened in the book, the children made a retell map. The setting was illustrated as the forest, and the path that the mouse took to meet each animal was documented. The kids loved retelling the book with their maps!

Matariki Maori New Year

We connected with the Matariki Maori New Year this month in school. We read numerous books circling around Matariki and learnt about the legends and the meaning of the seven stars. Of course I didn't tell the children right away what we were going to explore, but this only enlightened and enriched their learning experience! 

We discussed the below picture by talking about what we see, think and wonder!

We also looked through DIY telescopes to continue our inquiry journey.

Wow! We reflected and apparently we saw so many things through our telescopes!

Finally, we looked on Youtube and put 7 stars in the search engine, as well as New Zealand. We discovered that we'll be learning about Matariki Maori New Year!

To celebrate Matariki, we made kites that symbolise the seven stars! We also waited for the perfect windy day to fly them. 

We also reflected and wrote about our kite flying experience. 

As a whanau, we connected and made a class korowai. Each student made and contributed to the korowai to help celebrate the Matariki New Year. 

Lastly, we went to the Auckland Museum and learnt the name of the seven stars by participating in the Matariki Haka. We performed this during our Whole School Assembly (coming soon)! 

Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down!

Even though we are now experiencing New Zealand's winter, we did explore autumn and all of its beauty a few weeks ago. The children brainstormed of things that reminded them of the fall season.



Then, we explored outside and collected fallen leaves. We also found insects, seeds, sticks and a stunning rainbow on our adventure!



Once we got back to the classroom, we observed our leaves. We sorted them based on their vibrant colours. We had many brown and red leaves. We also had one with hints of purple in it.

  

Based on the children's observations, they made a connection to autumn. Not only do the leaves fall to the ground, but they also change colour. I wonder why?

We watched a couple of videos to help us answer our pondering question. In the end, we learnt that they change colours and fall because it is cold and they aren't getting enough sunlight. How interesting!

Lastly, the children reflected and shared their new learning of autumn leaves in their writing books.

S'mores!

For our Unit of Inquiry, the children connected with Ms. Ely's American culture! First, the children came to school and were introduced to a peculiar-looking pizza box. They had many wondering questions around the box!

After they wrote down their questions, they were given three little clues to help them make connections to what we were going to do that day. They were confronted with chocolate, crackers and MARSHMALLOWS! The children roared with excitement after seeing the goodies!

These clues led the students to wonder and ask more specific questions relating to the pizza box and the treats. But, the children needed some more assistance as to what they were going to make!



So, we explored online and Googled the three ingredients. S'mores was the answer to our question! They also made the connection that s'mores are a traditional camping treat enjoyed in America and that I am also from America!

The kids made their own individual s'mores and cooked it inside the solar oven. They loved making observations throughout the day on the status of their melted chocolates.



By the end of the day, it was snack time! Not one bad review from the class! They also wrote about the s'mores using their senses and included many WOW words in their stories. What a delicious connection!

Anzac Art!

Even though Anzac Day fell during our holiday break this year, we still celebrated the day in Area 1 once we came back to school. The children learnt more about the history of Anzac, the significance of poppies and the responsibilities of soldiers.

We read two great children's books about Anzac Day, The Anzac Puppy and Anzac Ted.

 

Then, we combined Science and Art together in order to create a field of poppies.

First, the children wondered what would happen to crayons if we used a hair dryer on them.

Next, they enthusiastically conducted the experiment.



The children were 'wide eyed and bushy tailed' as they saw the changes occur to the crayons when heat was applied to them. They were thrilled talking to each other about which coloured crayon melted first, what happened to the colours as they CONNECTED with each other and how the melted crayons changed back to a solid once they dried!





Doesn't the grass look like something from one of Dr. Seuss' books?

Finally, the kids added the last touch to their abstract piece of art. They made a pin-wheel poppy and glued it to their colourful grass.















The children also got to present their wonderful, creative artwork to the Junior Syndicate in an assembly!