Category: Inquiry

Yesterday, Nick noticed something about the book “What the Sun Sees.” By Nancy Tafuri – the back cover was upside down. He told Mrs. Zurfluh about it. Mrs. Zurfluh asked: “What do you think about that? I wondered WHY?”

Some students said: “the author made a mistake.” Some said: “No, it is not a mistake.”

So we decided to read the book and try to figure out why. After reading, students had a conversation about the book and all agreed that it is not a mistake. The author put two books in this book: the first part is “What the Sun Sees.” The second part is “What the Moon See.” This book is similar to the book we read last week which the author put three books into one book. KZE students shared their noticing and thinking about the book:

Alexandra – “When the sun is shining on this side of the earth, the moon is shining on the other side of the world.”
Safir – “Day and night has something to do with the way the earth moves.”
Nick – “There are two stories in this book. One is about the sun and one is about the moon. The way the book can be flipped over shows the difference between day and night.”
Mali – “At night the sun shines on the other side of the world. The sun and the moon sees some of the  same places in the book.”
Veronika – “The moon sees that the owl is not sleeping.  The moon sees places when they are quite.  The sun see places when they are noisy.”
Julia – “Sometimes it is daytime in one place but night time in another place.”
Altai – “The earth spins.  The moon and the sun are part of the cycle system.”
Tomasz – “The owl sleeps during the day – he is nocturnal.”
Amie – “The rabbit comes out at night and the lamb comes out in the morning.  The sun does not move.  The earth goes around the sun very slowly.  It starts in the winter in January and finishes in next spring. And it starts again and again.”
Some students disagreed with Amie’s thinking.
Ada – “There is a pattern in the book. It changes from what the sun sees to what the moon sees.”
Gabi – “The sun sees the playground when it is busy during the day time and the moon sees the playground when it is quiet at night.  The earth is turning around so we have day and night.”
Alex – “When the sun is out people are playing and when the moon is out people are sleeping. The earth moves and the moon and sun are part of a cycle.”

This is one of many examples that KZE students take advantage of the spontaneous learning opportunities. WAY TO GO, KZE learners!!!

We started a new unit of inquiry “How We Express Ourselves” this week. As a connection to our own lives, KZE students brought in beautiful things from home. They had a chance to explore and share their noticing:

Julia: “They are beautiful because they have beautiful colors.”
Alexandra: “Some of them are sparkly, some of them are not. But I still like them because I love all the stuffs.”
Ada: “They are beautiful because some of them have pictures on it.”
Tomasz: ” They are beautiful because they are shinny and sparkly.”
Amie: “They are beautiful because they are all different.”
Safir: “They are beautiful because some of them have patterns.”
Altai: “I love beautiful things because some of them are big, some of them are small. I like them because they are different sizes.”
Alex:” I love them because some of them are shinny, some of the are toys, some of them are marbles. You just don’t know what they could be.”
Gabi: “I noticed that some of the things are soft, some of them are not soft. They are all different.”
Nick: “They are beautiful because they are different.”
Mali: ” They are beautiful because some of the shells are painted and sparkly.”
Veronika: ” They are beautiful because they are different and are from different places.”
Seok: “They are beautiful because they have different shapes.”

What are we going to do with these beautiful things?
We can
make a pictures, hang them up, create a art piece, make pattern, show them to other people, and create things.

We can’t wait to share with you what we will create with these beautiful things.

https://animoto.com/play/5JvV11uuALt891vaGTPEqw

Our experiment starts with Nick.

Nick had a Lego boat and a leaf in his “About Me Box.” When he shared with the class, he said: “I like this leaf because it is red and it can swim in the water. My Lego boat can swim too. They will move along and not break in the water.” This made us wondered: would they both swim if we put them into water? What about other stuff? Will they sink or float? Alex made a connection that he had done a similar experiment at home with his Lego boat that ‘both would float. Today we decided to see for ourselves what would happen.

Each student chose one item from the classroom to see if it would sink or float and we went outside with a big tub of water to do our experiment.

https://animoto.com/play/dx1wbqAeL4cSETHL00pM2Q

Mrs. Zurfluh: “What did you noticed?”

KZE noticed that “Some things float and some things sink.”
Mrs. Zurfluh: “Why do you think that happen?”

Altai: “Big things sink and small things float.”
Alex: “If that is true then why do boats float? They are very big.”
Nick: “Rocks will sink because they are small.”
Alex: “If things are big they have more weight and can stay up. When they are small they don’t have weight so sink.’
Altai, Safir and Alexandra agreed with this.
Gabi did not agree: “Some small things can float and some big things can sink. Heavy things sink.”
Alex does not agree: “Then why do boats not sink? They are very heavy!”
Tim: “Some big things have things inside that stop them sinking.”
Ada: “Things that float are made of special materials.”
Veronika: “Some are heavy and sink. Some are not heavy and float.
Julia: “Big things can float. Small things can sink.”
Amie: “Things that sink don’t have feet.”

Mrs. Zurfluh: “How can we find out?”

Alexandra: “We measure things to see if they will float or sink.”
Amie: “We can do more experiments.”
Alex: “I looked for information on why things float on my dad’s phone.”
Safir: “We can look on the computer.”
Altai: “We can watch TV.”
Tim: “Books. Sometimes people look at boats and then write what they find out.”

We posted our question “Why some things sink and some things float?” on our wonder wall. We are waiting to see if it will spark more inquiry in KZE.

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…

At the end of the unit of inquiry “How We Express Ourselves”, KZE students made a connection after reading books of “Firebird” by Caldecott Honoree and “What A Wonderful World” by Bob Thiele and George Weiss. They noticed that people can also use music and movement to express feelings and ideas. They decided to try to create their own music.

Here are the highlight of their inquiry process:

https://animoto.com/play/KOFKMGVLHAiKBe6tdHVGyw

Group 1 (Kyle, Safiya, Daisy, Freddie)
This group decided to write their own rap song. They tried very hard to come up with words that rhyme with their names. Then they chose their instrument – Kyle with beat boxing, Daisy with piano, Freddie with triangle. During the rehearsal, Kyle changed his mind and decided to use guitar instead of making sound with his voice. They also came up with a plan on how to perform: they took turn to play the instrument and say their line. At the end, they all said the line while playing instrument altogether at the same time. They learned that “it was hard to play as a band because we needed to practice our instruments so that we can play really good.”

[KGVID width=”480″ height=”360″]http://blogs.aas.ru/kze/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2015/04/kaymbu-video2-20150422-1350v2.mov[/KGVID]

Group 2 (Fatima, Lisa, Michael, Liam)
This group came up with a plan on who is playing what instrument. They also tried to come up with ideas on where to find the instruments that they need. However, during rehearsal time, they realized that they didn’t plan on how to make the music. So they had to spend more time on the planning. Their plan was for Fatima and Liam to play at the same time, Michael and Lisa on their own. After individual performance, all of them came back together and played at the same time. They noticed that it was OK to change their plan because sometimes the plan didn’t work that well.

[KGVID width=”480″ height=”360″]http://blogs.aas.ru/kze/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2015/04/kaymbu-video4-20150422-1350v2.mov[/KGVID]

Group 3 (Emerson, Scarlett, Lizzy, Trace)
This group also decided to make their own music. After they chose their instrument, they disagreed on how to create the music. After some serious discussion, they were able to listen to other’s thinking and ideas and created a plan that they were all happy with. During the rehearsal, they noticed that some of them needed more practice with the instrument. After they listen to the recording, they didn’t like the music. So they had more conversation about the project and chose to re-do it again. They thought that it was easier to create music without the paper. They also realized that when they played together, the music sounded better when they all followed the lead of a keyboard. They agreed that they needed to work together for the music to sound good.

[KGVID width=”480″ height=”360″]http://blogs.aas.ru/kze/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2015/04/kaymbu-video1-20150422-1350v2.mov[/KGVID]

One day, We read a book called “What Do You Do With an Idea?” by Kobi Yamada and Mae Besom.  It inspired our students to have an intense discussion about what they would do if they have an idea:

Michael: “I will write it down.
Lizzy: “I will write it down and stick it on the mystery wall.”
Emerson: “I agreed with the book, I will change the world.”
Daisy: “I would just do it.”
Trace: “You shouldn’t do it because you don’t know if it is a good idea or not.”
Scarlett: “I will write down on my idea book. And see if it is a good thing to do.”
Lisa: “I will write it down.  I will do it when I am older.  I want to test it and see if it is good or not.  I can’t do it now because it may be dangerous.”
Liam: “ I will just do it.”
Freddie: “I agreed with Liam.  I will just do it.”
Safiya: “Don’t wait, just do it.  If you wait, you might forget your idea.”
Hannes: “I will write it down, and put it on the mystery wall.”
Fatima: “I agreed with Safiya.  If you wait, you will forget about it. So just do it.”

We are waiting for some ideas to come up so that we can decide what to do with them.

The other day, after finishing our sculptures with wood, rocks and wires, we were wondering what else we can use to make sculpture. We happened to have some plaster in the classroom. Students were so enthusiastic about trying it. Mrs. Zurfluh and Ms. Tracey told the children that they had not done this before. So we decided to explore together. Our experiment started with wearing masks and gloves, touching gluey plaster, finding ways to make plaster with consistency etc. etc. We also got frustrated about not being able to put plaster into balloons fast enough so that we can mold them into shapes we want before it dried out. Along the way, we all learned to be patient, flexible, and persistent. The children also discovered the following:

Daisy: “I noticed that when it is dry, it feels harder and cold.”
Liam: “I can make it into almost any shapes that I want.”
Emerson: “When you use plaster to make things, it dries very fast.”
Scarlett: “I noticed that when it is not dry, it feels hot. But when it is dry, it is cold.”
Michael: “When you tried to make a snow man, the ball fell down.”
Freddie: “I noticed that it is very, very messy when we tried to make things.”
Lisa:” When you take off the plate or the bowl, the patterns stay in the plaster.”
Fatima: “When we use plaster, it is very messy. We need to wear gloves.”
Safiya: “The plate that I made has patterns in it.”
Hannes: “ It is very messy…”

It is our hope that the inquiring/exploring seeds that we planted will continue to inspire our children in the years to come through their learning journey.