WOWZA! Where is the time going? We’ve been flying through the month of October on amazing inquiry adventures! As you know, October has been focused on “INQUIRY” for our IB programme. We have been encouraging for students to ask questions about things they are curious about and expanding their critical thinking skills. When we are talking about leaves for example, there might be questions asked like, “Why are the leaves changing colors?” or “Why are the leaves falling off the trees?” or “What should we do with the leaves that are on the ground?” These types of questions encourage your child to think in a way that allows them to sequence, and dig deeper into why things are the way they are in our world (their world).
During week seven (October 13-17), we continued our Tree Study Investigation! First thing we all did when we came back from our long weekend was share our experiences and findings from our Inquiry Autumn Scavenger Hunt! Thank you so much for all your support in making that parent-child adventure so much fun and meaningful for the children! Their stories were fantastic! Each child was able to sort their findings into various pans by object. Secondly, we counted how many each class collected overall. During that time we discussed size, shape, texture, colors, etc… of the objects found. We also compared/contrasted these objects to each other. There were great discussions over this project! The next day (Wednesday), each child took many the objects from the inquiry scavenger hunt and created their own works of art! Some students made collages, others made people or animals with these materials. We read the story, “Lead Man” and “Yellow Leaf, Red Leaf” by Lois Ehlert to gain some inspiration! Miss Santiago and I were so amazed at their deep cognitive thinking and creativity that took place. Their ideas, and process they took to create their art was anything less than brilliant! We were in awe! I hope you are too when you see their work.
Week eight we began to switch our thinking to fire safety! (We also celebrated Read for the Record Day on Tuesday, but pictures will be posted in the next post for that). The students spent four days learning about fire safety, fire trucks, and firefighters! One of our morning family’s donated an awesome toy firehouse with trucks for the children to play with during this mini unit of study. This turned into the children creating larger structures being built of fire trucks, and homes that they could help rescue people and put out the fires! The children were so much fun to watch and listen in on their conversations! It always warms my heart when I get to see authentic learning take place when we create the right environment and opportunities to do so; through play! Students learned to “Stop, Drop, and Roll”, dial 911 on a phone if their is an emergency, the parts of a fire truck, and to not be afraid of firefighters! We had also had some fun learning centers during week eight that focused on numbers! We played a Fire Truck Roll and Dot game. Students learned how to use dice and match the numeral on their fire truck to the value on their dice! Very tricky for this age, but through practice and play they got it! We also worked on numerical order 1-5 and 1-10. Using firefighters and their numbered jackets students had to place the firemen in their numerical order in line! This was a great activity for the kids! Enjoy some of our pictures from our Fire Safety Study!
Preschool in the City with Mrs. Gabelman 