Commas, Commas, Commas

Earlier this week, we did a mini-inquiry into how commas are used.  On the first day, we found lots of sentences that used commas, and we theorized why and how those commas were used.  We developed many theories - "The Option Theory," "The See-Saw Theory,"  The Little More Information Theory."  It was fascinating.  On the second day, I gave the kids a list of sentences.  They worked with their partner to place all the sentences in five categories.  Our kids had to develop theories and revise those theories as they tried to classify these sentences.  After we placed them into categories, we did a "museum walk" around the room to find out how others had grouped their sentences.  We found that we had a lot of categories in common.  They may have been called different things, but they followed the same idea.  We also found that we disagreed about some of the classifications.  And that was good, too!  Here are a few pictures of our kids at work...

Space Facts from Room 241

After returning from our field study to Roper Mountain Science Center, we decided to do a mini-inquiry into space. We had learned so many new interesting facts about our solar system, and had a lot of new questions. We began this inquiry by developing our questions and wonderings. We then spent a lot of time reading through resources, trying to find the answers to our questions. We learned to read "big chunks" at a time; we learned to connect our new learning to our background knowledge; and we learned to stop, think, and reflect about what we're reading. We decided to showcase our new learning with a display on the outside wall of our classroom (it's currently being created). But I also got the video camera out and had a few kids share their learning on film. Hope you enjoy...

Columbus Inquiry - What We Learned

After our Columbus inquiry was over, I invited the kids to share about what they learned. I captured a few of their responses on video...

Christopher Columbus Inquiry

Last week I introduced Christopher Columbus to the class. We read a few picture books, shared our previous knowledge, and studied maps of his journeys. We then began to ask questions ,and we recorded these questions in our writer's notebooks. These questions were the basis for our inquiry. The following day, we had the opportunity to explore more resources as we searched for answers to our questions. Students used the Internet to study websites about Columbus; other students worked with partners to read non-fiction texts about this explorer. We came away from this experience with LOTS of our questions answered. I was really proud of our kids! After the inquiry was over, I asked our students to reflect on the experience. How do we go about finding answers to our questions? Here is what we came up with:

• We are curious people.
• We learned some initial facts.
• We asked questions.
• We wrote out questions in our notebook.
• We read 'big chunks" at a time.
• As we read, we asked ourselves, "What did I learn?"
• We wrote down what we learned in our own words.
• We shared our thinking and questions with our partners.
• We used the Internet and books as resources.
• We were on-task.
• We enjoyed learning new things.
• We concentrated.
• We thought about our questions as we read.

Below are some pictures of our researchers as work..

Christopher Columbus

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How Much Snow?

We were lucky to get some snow this school year - it's been a long time since we've had some March snow. With two snow days and a two hour delay, I was WAY behind on my lesson plans. When we came back to school that Wednesday, I was ready to jump back in the curriculum. But...as the kids walked in and greeted each other, there was so much talk about snow. We shared our experiences about the snow and gave descriptions of what it was like at each of our houses. There was a lot of talk about how much snow we received. So, I asked each child to make an estimate about the amount of snow fall at their house (we got out our rulers and reviewed inches), and everyone recorded their data on a post-it note. We put all our data on a line plot and analyzed it. We noticed lots of interesting trends (which we charted)! In order to show our results in different ways, teams of students create bar graphs, pie graphs, and pictographs. Below are some pictures of our work...

How Much Snow?

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