Newsletter: March 30th

 Hey Everyone, 

Have you heard about our chicks?!?!?! The kids were so excited to see them begin hatching yesterday. By the time they came back into the classroom this morning we had 4 (two black and two yellow) chirping away like mad. They are currently in a large tub where we can observe, hold, and care for them until 4-H comes to pick them up on Friday.

We've learned a lot during these past 21 days. Some of our discussions have built on things we studied earlier in the year - like insulators (the box that keeps the eggs warm), humidity (as a measure of weather conditions), weight (tracking the eggs over the course of chick development), and much more. 

Comically (or sadly), the very day our chicks began hatching one of our lunch choices was chicken nuggets. As you can imagine, this caused a bit of an uproar.

Ha, I'm sure they'll be right back to loving Chick-fil-a within a day or two.

A part of the day I don't believe I've written much about this year is our Morning Meeting. This is the part of the day when the kids truly lead the work we do as they bring in questions and observations they want the rest of us to think more about in an effort to better understand the world we live in. We have five journals - science journal, language journal, culture journal, math journal, and classroom community journal - the kids use to record their thoughts. They share these with us in our circle and then they facilitate the discussion. I love it because it's the purest form of inquiry and the kids grow into leadership roles where they are as much the teacher as they are the learner. Some of the questions they've asked over the past month or so have included:

How can we see space from a telescope?

Why were weapons invented?

Why do we have countries?

Why are people afraid of snakes?

Why do we cough?

Why are gay people sometimes treated so bad?

Why don't cats like water?

Why do we have eye boogers in the morning?

How do seeds get made?

Where do waves come from?

What makes a book inappropriate?

Why are some words "bad"?

Why does the speedometer in the car go above 100 if it's illegal to drive that fast?

Will the chicks come out the same color as their eggs?

Why do two odd numbers make an even number when you add them?

How did the first person in your family tree get their last name?

How do drinks get carbonated?

Why do cats like to play in boxes?

And this is just a sample. Over the course of the year they've asked 178 questions so far! I love hearing what they're noticing and what they're wondering about. Sometimes we figure these out together, sometimes we look them up on the computer, and other times we agree we just have to keep thinking about it.

Finally, as you know from my many emails we are having a Share Fair tomorrow where we'll be teaching the school about important people from the present and the past. We'll be presenting from 11:45-12:30 and again from 1:15-2:15. We hope to see you there. If you can't make it, be sure to have your child share their presentation with you at home!