Month: June 2015

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Have a great summer, KZE!!!

Following are photos for our summer field day.

It has been a great year KZE! You have worked hard and played hard. Thank you for all the efforts you have put in your learning. Thank you to all parents for your home support. Most importantly, thank you for allowing us to be part of your child’s learning journey. We truly enjoyed our time together. We will miss Scarlett, Emerson, Lizzy, Lisa and their families as they move onto their next adventures. We wish them all the best.

Wish you all a wonderful summer!

Love,
Mrs. Zurfluh & Ms. Tracey

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Shadows

Emerson, Trace, and Hannes wanted to measure different things including their shadows during math time. Other students wanted to join in. One sunny morning, KZE students went out to the playground and tried to measure their shadows. They worked with a partner to decide what to use and how to record the information. All groups completed their mission.

Not quite yet. In the early afternoon, Mrs. Zurfluh said to the children: “We are going to measure our shadows again. What do you think will happen? Will our shadows be the same, longer, or shorter than shadows in the morning? Why?” Most children predicted that the shadows in the afternoon will be longer than the mornings because we ate our snack and lunch and we grew. Some students thought they will be the same because we won’t grow that fast.

So they went out to measure their shadows again, standing at the same spot we measured in the morning. After gathering all the record, they noticed that the shadows in the afternoon were shorter than the morning’s. Students were quite surprised by the finding. They were not sure WHY?

The next day, Mrs. Zurfluh gave students a flashlight and a block and said: “I would like you to explore and experiment with these objects and see if you can make some connections of why the shadows in the afternoon are shorter than shadows in the morning.” Students worked in groups to explore. Then they shared their thinking with the whole class. Some meaningful debates occurred:

Group 1 – Kyle, Daisy, Freddie and Hannes
Kyle: “We think that since it was morning the sun was closer to Moscow and it was brighter. So the shadows are bigger. In the afternoon the sun has moved away from Moscow, so the shadows get shorter.”
Scarlett: “How does the sun move closer and further?”
Kyle: “Because it is moving around the earth.”
Emerson: “But how is this possible if the sun stays on the same straight line?”
Mrs. Zurfluh: “Does the sun move or does the Earth move?”
Emerson: “Ah! So then it’s the earth that moves!”
Daisy: “When it is bright, it is morning. The shadow is big. When it is afternoon, the shadow is smaller, and the sun is not bright.”
Lisa: “Why does the shadows go smaller in the afternoon and bigger in the morning?”
Daisy: “In the morning it’s brighter and the earth is closer to the sun. In the afternoon it is further from the sun.”
Kyle: “The earth rotates away from the sun and the shadow is smaller.”

Group 2 – Liam, Lisa, Michael and Safiya
Lisa: “ We noticed that the shadow falls across the table but we are not sure why.”
Michael: “We noticed that if we move the flashlight over the block, the shadow gets smaller.”
Liam, “When our shadows are bigger the sun was shining on our backs. But as the sun went higher, our shadows got smaller.”
Lisa: “When you go closer, the shadow is bigger. The further away, the smaller the shadow.”
Lizzy: “But how do you know this? I don’t understand.”
Emerson: “We don’t really know this, we are experimenting.”
Kyle: “It is a possibility. It may happen.”

Group 3 – Trace, Scarlett, Emerson and Lizzy
Emerson, “We noticed the same as Group 2 but we also noticed something else. When the sun is high we get short shadows, when the sun is low the shadows are longer.”
Lizzy, “We noticed that from the side, its bigger. And from the top, it is shorter.”

As our debates came to the end, students all wondered how and where they can find the answer to the question “Why shadows in the morning are longer than shadows in the afternoon?” They agreed to continue the search for the answers. Their inquiry continues…

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“How The World Works” year long unit of inquiry

During our year-long “How the World Works” unit, KZE students observed changes over time.
They noticed that:
Lizzy: “I noticed the changes happened to ourselves.”
Lisa: “some changes happened with non-living things. Some changes happened with living things.”
Liam:” Changes happened in the nature.”
Scarlett:” Changes happened in different seasons. Most of the changes I wrote down were inside the classroom.”
Kyle:” Changes happened all around us.”
Daisy: “The forest changed at different time of the year. We changed from Pre-k to K”
Michael:” I noticed time changed, and the months changed.”
Emerson: “Changes even happened inside us.”
Trace: “I noticed that all the changes are different.”
Fatima”I was small, now I am bigger. We have grown.”
Safiya: “I noticed that our caterpillars have changed.”
Hannes: “I noticed that the calendar changed.”
Freddie: “I noticed that the months in the calendar changed.”

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Students noticed that some changes happened once or twice, and some changes happened again and again and in a pattern (cycle). They enjoyed recording and explaining one of the earth cycles – seasons.

Students made connections between earth’s changes and patterns of behaviors in living things related to these changes. They created a poster to show their understanding. They first sorted the changes into groups – ourselves, nature, environment, and time,etc. Then they brainstormed on what living things do when nature/environment or time changes.

Daisy: “In December, there was snow and it was cold. Birds fly to warm places. In May, we have no snow and it is warm. The birds come back.”
Emerson: “First, my green bean was a seed, now it is a plant. It will grow until it is green bean for me to eat.”
Fatima: “The caterpillar have grown into butterfly. The other animals may eat the butterfly.”
Freddie: “Some animals hide when there is snow. When the snow is gone, the animals come out.”
Hannes: “The plants grow. The bees come to the flowers and eat pollen.”
Kyle: “In December, it was cold. Bears go to sleep. Now it is hot, the snow has melted. The bears come out and eat other animals.”
Lisa: “When it was December, it was cold. Animals hide and hibernate. When it is May, it is warm. Birds come back and animals come back too.”
Liam: ” In spring, the grass and flowers grow. The flowers are food for bees and bugs. They eat the flowers so that they can grow.”
Lizzy: ” The caterpillar can make a cocoon and turn into a butterfly. Then other animals eat the butterfly for breakfast, or lunch, or dinner.”
Michael: “It is cold in December. People have to wear warm coats. Now it is warm and we don’t need coats.”
Safiya: “Now the leaves come out. The birds come back to make nests.”
Scarlett: “There were lots of snow before. Some animals hibernated because it was cold. Now there is no snow. Animals come out because it is hot.”
Trace: “In the winter, the trees are dead and now they are not. Some living things hibernate in the winter and other living things don’t because they like the winter.”


As we wrapped up this unit, KZE students demonstrated a better understanding of how the natural environment and humans interact.