Category: Unit of Inquiry

As we are getting closer to the end of the school year, we try to help students reflect on their learning experiences from our year-long “How the World Works” unit of inquiry. KZE students observed changes over time.

They noticed that:
Ada: “The snow is gone. Everything was white and now everything is green.”
Alex: “Animals changed too. Because when they grow, they get bigger”
Alexandra: “The temperature changed. Then the ducks go away and come back.”
Altai: “The pond is not frozen. The ducks came back.”
Emmi: “It is warmer so the worms can come out. There were no worms when there was snow.”
Gabi: “The seasons changed. It caused the temperature changed.”
Julia: “We changed too. We grow.”
Mali: “The weather changes and gets warmer so all the animals and birds come out.”
Nick: “I noticed that houses get older and it can change too.”
Safir: “I noticed it is warmer and when it is warmer everything grows like the flowers, trees, grass, bugs and birds.”
Soeun: “I see that before we were bit smaller and now we are bigger.”
Tim: “We changed. Last time we were small. Now all of us grew.”
Tomasz: “Leaves changed colors.”

After sharing our noticing, students tried to make connections between earth’s cycles/changes and behaviors in living things. They can explain what living things do when changes occurred.

KZE students demonstrated their understanding of an earth’s cycle with drawings and writings.

As we wrapped up this unit, KZE students demonstrated a better understanding of how the Earth’s cycles/changes influence the activities of living things.

In support of our unit of inquiry, KZE students visited the Kadashi Russian Culture Center to learn more about the past.  For the past several weeks, through different ways (interviewing people, researching books, internet, field trip etc.), students gathered lots of evidence that help us identify how life has changed:

Alexandra: “Back then they used big tea pot to make tea. Now we use smaller one.”
Veronika: “People eat different kinds of food.”
Julia: “There was no electricity back then. People used candles. Now we have electricity.”
Tomasz: “Back then people made toys. Now people buy toys.”
Alex: “There were no cars, buses, or trains back then. People walked to school in all weather. Back then there were wooden toys and feather pens.”
Amie: “There were different kinds of toys back then. Now toys are made of plastic.”
Nick: “Back then people lived in big houses. Animals lived at the back of their houses.”
Gabi: “Back then people cut sugar for their tea. Now people don’t.”
Ada: : People walked to school back then. They skated to school in winter. Now people take buses or cars to school. But if they live close to school, they walk to school too.”
Safir: “Back then the clock is bigger than our clock now.”
Altai: ” Back then most people built houses by themselves.”
Mali: “Back then there was no telephone. Now we have telephone.”
Seoun: “People made books back then with paper.”
Tim: “Back then there was no TV. Now We have TV.”

Students have so much to share about their new learned knowledge, they decided to create their own books. They are in the process of writing the book of “How Life Has Changed.” They can’t wait to share with all of you. So stay tuned…

KZE students went on another forest walk this Wednesday. They noticed many changes along the way:

Amie: “More nets around the trees.”
Alex: “Last time, the beaver’s den was long and there were flowers around it. But now there was only snow, no flowers around it.”
Gabi: “Last time there was no sand on the ground. But this time, there were sand on the ground. They put sand on the ground so that you won’t fall down because of the snow.”
Ada: “There were no ducks in the pond. I wondered where the ducks went.”
Altai: “The ducks went to the other pond because the other pond was not frozen.”
Alexandra: “We saw more snow and ice. But last time we saw lots of grass and flowers.”
Julia: “Last time, we saw many big leaves on the trees. But this time, we saw very little leaves.”
Veronika: “I noticed that there were ducks in the big pond and there were no ducks in the little pond.”
Nick: “I noticed that there was little bit ice in the big pond. But the whole little pond was frozen. The ducks can’t live in there. They went out.”
Soeun: “There are lots of snow on the ground. It was cold.”
Seok: “This time there was ice in the water.”
Tomasz: “I noticed that there were flowers last time. But we didn’t see any flowers this time.”

In response to Ada’s question of “where the ducks went?” and Altai and Nick’s answers, KZE students continued their discussion:

Alexandra: “They flew down south. So they can stay in a warmer lake.”
Gabi: “All the ducks go to the bigger pond. Because there are still some water in the bigger pond.”
Mrs. Zurfluh: “What will happen if the bigger pond froze too?”
Julia: “They will go to the ones that are not frozen.”
Veronika: “They will fly to a warmer place.”
Alex: “They flew from the small pond to the big pond. When all the ponds in Moscow are frozen, they will fly to a hot place like Spain, or Dominican Republic.”
Amie: “Or India, or Australia.”
Altai: “If all the ponds are frozen in the whole world, the ducks will crack the ice with their beaks.”
Ada: “I disagreed. Because not all the ponds in the world will be frozen.”
Tomasz: “I agreed with Ada.”

We will continue to observe the forest and record as many changes as we noticed.

Pokrovsky Hills Community Walk:

In support our “How We Organize Ourselves” unit of inquiry, KZE students went on exploring the Pokrovsky Hills community next to our school with the questions of “What jobs do you see people do in a community?” and “What do we need in a community?”

After our trip, we did some reflection and shared what we had noticed. Then we sorted all the things we saw into different categories.   

Things:
Houses, mailboxes, garbage cans, decorations, cars, playground, trees, maps, leaves, gate, camera, and delivery truck.

Places:
Maintenance place, doctor’s office, daycare center, store, security guard office, and community center.

Jobs/services:
Delivery man, cleaners,teacher, and security guards.

We brainstormed and created a list of what is missing at the Pokrovsky Hills community and what we need in a community:
Mail man, mail truck, garbage truck, water truck, flower shop, pickup truck, bus station, hospital, zoo, taxi station, shoes store, clothes store, fish market, airport, helicopter station, decoration store, pet store, pond, university, Café, library, candy store, bakery, book store, toy store, fire station, and office building.

This list will help us when we plan our model community. Students are very excited about designing and creating our own model community.

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.

At the beginning of our “How We Express Ourselves” unit of inquiry, KZE students observed some art pieces and tried to draw on their prior knowledge and experiences to answer questions of “What is art?” and “What was the artist trying to tell you?” Here are some of their understanding:

Kyle: “Art is like making sculptures. Artist can use different things to make art.”
Daisy: “Art is where you draw and make lots of new stuffs. Artists always make sure they get ready to do what they want to do. They always have the colors they want.”
Liam: “Art is colorful, it has paint in it.”
Emerson: “Art is being creative. Artists usually use the word “art” for painting.”
Michael: “Art is when you draw pictures.”
Fatima: “Art is experimenting and use different tools.”
Scarlett: “Art is pretty and colorful. Artists use paint brushes, crayons, markers, and pencils to make pictures.”
Lizzy: “When artists don’t have the colors they need, they can mix colors.”
Trace: “Art is like drawing with color crayons to make pictures. You need lots of colors to do painting.”
Freddie: “Art is like you can use pretty much everything to make art.”
Lisa: “Artists sometimes use strings, beads to make art. They also do oil painting.”
Hannes: “Art is colors.”
Safiya: “Art is drawings.”

We read some books and they seemed to tell us something different than what we thought. So we agreed to do some more explorations and experiments. Maybe at the end of our unit, we can come back and see if we change our thinking.

The Kindergarten teachers set up different activities with different mediums and tools in each room. All Kindergarten students visited each classroom in rotation. They got a chance to explore, manipulate, observe, and reflect. Here are some of their notice:

Water color in Mr. Ross’s classroom
• The paper has pattern on it, when you paint the pattern appeared.
• You need to use water to wet the paint.
• There are dots on paper when you paint.
• You can mix two colors to make a new color.
• You used one brush for all colors. But you need to wash the brush every time.

Making prints in Ms. Jill’s classroom
• You can make prints with lots of different things.
• You can print with paint. All you need to do is to put the thing in the paint, pick it up, and put it on the paper.
• Prints can be colorful.
• You can use mud to make print.

Chalk/oil pastel in Mrs. Wiese’s classroom
The chalks spread well, but oil pastels didn’t spread well.
• The chalks have little dust coming out, but the oil pastels didn’t.
• The chalks are very messy.
• When you use chalk sideways, it draws quicker.
• When you use blue and green pastel on top of each other, the colors don’t mix together.

Sculpture in Mrs. Zurfluh’s classroom
• The white rocks are with chalk on it. They made your hands white.
• Some wires are hard to straighten.
• You can bend and cut the wires.
• The wires are kind of sharp. We need to be careful when working with the wires.
• There are different sizes of wires. The thinner ones are easy to cut. The thicker ones are difficult to cut.

Clay in Mrs. Nellor’s classroom
• Clay is very messy. Sometimes is very hard to make stuff. Sometimes it is not.
• It is fun working with clay, but it is hard to break it.
• You can make anything with clay.
• Clay is kind of like print. We can make print on the clay.
• You can use tools to make different shapes with clay.
• The clay washes off very easily.

We will continue to experiment and explore artistic tools and mediums to create art that express our feelings, ideas, and thinking

In support of our “Where We Are in Place and Time” unit of inquiry, KZE students visited the Kadashi Russian Center.  They had the opportunity to experience a bit of life in Russia long ago.  Children learned some old Russian circle games and examined antique toys and household objects.  They all enjoyed the old-fashioned tea party at the end.

Here are some of their reflection:
I learned that people used five candles in each room back then. – Daisy
I learned that people built houses out of wood. – Emerson
I learned back then people built houses with wood. – Lizzy
Long ago, people didn’t have electricity so they used candles made of wax. – Kyle
We played an old rope game. Somebody is inside the rope and that person touches my hand, then I let go. Then I hold on to the rope again. – Trace
I learned that long ago, the houses were close together. We also played a rock game. We flipped the rock and tried to catch it. – Scarlett
I learned that long ago, people played rope games because they didn’t have many toys. – Lisa
I learned that people and animals live close so when it is cold, people can feed them and milk the cows. – Fatima
Animals lived in the small house that was next to the big house because the snow was cold. – Liam
I noticed that people and animals lived in houses because it was too cold for animals to be outside. – Michael

On the way back to school, some students made a connection when they spotted a big build board with photos of that area back in the 1910’s. They immediately recognized that “these are the evidences that showing what it was like back then.” Way to go KZE THINKERS!!!