By now, your child has probably come home discussing our last inquiry unit of the year, physical science. The major concepts being explored are Matter, Gravity, Sound, Magnetism, and Light. We began with Matter, learning that all objects are composed of matter. Ask your child to name the three types of matter and see if they can describe some attributes of the properties of matter.

The most exciting part of watching the 1st and 2nd graders explore during science time is listening to their conversations. They are all so curious as to how things work, and some of them come up with some excellent hypotheses. The entire class has the scientific process mastered. For example, today we began to explore sound. The class brainstormed what they know about sound. These are the thirteen statements they came up with together:

It is something you can hear.
No sound is called silence.
Sounds come in waves.
The air carries the sound waves.
People can make sounds by hitting one object against another object.
Sounds are vibrating noises.
Humans and animals hear the sounds because their ear drums attract the vibrations.
People and animals can hear the vibrations.
An echo is a repeating sound.
An echo happens when there is a noise, it vibrates in the air, it hits a wall, or a mountain, and then it vibrates back.
There is something called the sound barrier.
The sound barrier is invisible and keeps the sound close to Earth.
Jets can break the sound barrier by creating sonic booms.

Today’s experiment was titled “What’s happening to my salt?” I’ll let your child fill you in on the specific details, but each child and/or group must form a daily hypothesis of what they predict will happen. The experiment is conducted, observations are noted, we discuss what we learned, and we work together to arrive at a conclusion.

Each student is keeping a science folder in which they record each experiment’s hypothesis, observation, and conclusion. The comments I hear during science time are filled with excitement and enthusiasm. My goal for our budding scientists is to have some mastery of basic scientific concepts. More importantly, my goals are to appeal to their sense of wonder and discovery, to show them how scientists work, and to help them to see their roles as scientists.

Thank you for all the RSVPs for our Family Festival of Science Evening. All students in grades 1 and 2 will be attending this event in Wilcox Dining Hall on May 1 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Bishop Museum will set up twelve stations featuring various experiments dealing with the physical sciences, botany, astronomy, archeology, and even a form of medical mystery testing! We teachers are just as excited as the children!

The form I sent home stated that our class potluck would be at 5:30, but let’s start at 5:15 instead. Please just join us whenever you finish work. However, I do need to request five helpers for the evening. Bishop Museum is requesting one dad per classroom to arrive at 4:30, help unload, and set up some of the heavy props. They ask for another dad to help from 8:00-8:30 with the breakdown and reloading (it can be the same dad). They would also like three moms or dads to be stationed at a certain experiment from 6:00-8:00. However, I’m thinking that’s a long shift; perhaps another parent could step in to relieve the first. Please e-mail me, or send a note if you are able to help us in any way that evening. However, since Bishop Museum is requesting that an adult supervise each child, our only volunteers can be from those families who have both parents in attendance.

Posted by Ms. LeBlanc at 1:16 PM | Permalink

Wow, we have certainly been busy in Room 12. If you have some time, be sure to check our class photo gallery -- there are over seventy photos from the past two months showcasing all sorts of learning.

You might see some photos of our 1st and 2nd graders working with the 3rd and 4th graders from Ms. Byrne’s class. Our two classes have been chosen to help design the sets for Kahalaopuna, the opera we will be performing in May. After hearing the story read by its author, James Rumford, the two classes met to begin brainstorming.

As you can imagine, the children have some pretty vivid and fantastic ideas of what the background scenery should look like. Our classes will be getting together next week as well, and they’ll be working in groups to paint, draw, or sketch various scenes. These proposals will then be given to Mrs. Koshi. She hopes to choose various elements from different proposals to come up with our set designs.

To help us generate ideas, we took a trip to the Blaisdell Concert Hall for a backstage tour of the Romeo & Juliet set. It was incredibly exciting for our two classes (and for Ms. Byrne and me) to see how many people it takes to design a professional set. We learned it takes sixteen carpenters to assemble the set and that it is all carefully measured and drawn out in blueprint form before assembly begins.

Thanks to the lighting crew, the costume and wig masters, and the props crew who gave us an intimate tour of the backstage area of the Blaisdell. It definitely motivated us to get going on our own set designs. If you feel you’d be able to help assemble the sets for Kahalopuna, be sure to let Mrs. Koshi know; we’ll begin construction in early April.

This morning we had a visit from Wilbur Wright, and tomorrow George Washington and Thomas Jefferson will be stopping by Room 12! It’s all part of our biographical research. All 2nd graders have selected a famous person in history to research and learn about. The children will be presenting their learning to our class and their parents today and tomorrow. It is truly amazing how much energy and enthusiasm the children bring to these projects. To see them presenting in front of their class in a calm and poised manner is so impressive. I know that they will forever remember details about Paul Revere or Betsy Ross’ life because it was important and meaningful for THEM as children to read about these people and to present to us what they feel is impressive about the person they researched. I’ll add those photos to our gallery next week after the rest of the children do their presentations.

Posted by Ms. LeBlanc at 2:13 PM | Permalink

All of the students in grades 1 and 2 are taking a different approach to inquiry this quarter. Since Mid-Pacific Institute is celebrating its 100th year in Manoa, all elementary students are conducting an inquiry with a focus on Manoa. All four grade 1 and 2 classes took a walk to a very special place on campus. Although we adults know it is an underground natural spring called Kawailele, we wanted to allow the children to sit, ponder, brainstorm,and come up with their own hypotheses of what this place was that we were visiting.

I began by asking the children,”What do you think this place is?” Thoughts ranged from " a pond" to "a lake" to "some sort of a pool." One child thought it was part of the sewer, and another that it was simply a giant puddle. One quiet girl chimed in and announced that it was, in fact, an underground spring because her mother told her so!

Once we all came to that conclusion, I then asked the children,”Where does the water come from?” Some of their thoughts included,“I think it comes from the ocean. It comes from the rain and it fills up! I think it’s connected to the sewer!” Finally, one observant boy stated, “I think it comes from the mountains and fills up this hole.”

We have all these great quotes, observations, and wonderings on videotape. We teachers have decided to document this inquiry by utilizing technology to create an i-movie of what we’re learning as a grade level instead of in individual classes.

Now that we think the water is coming to our campus from Manoa somehow, we are planning on taking a field trip to the back of Manoa Valley to do some hiking. We are waiting for Mr. Louie’s bus to return from its tune-up and paint job. As soon as that happens, I’ll let you know the date of our hike to Manoa Falls. We will be needing 3-4 parents to join us on the hike.

Posted by Ms. LeBlanc at 1:08 PM | Permalink

By now, your young scientist should have taken home a bag of bones to show you. This week we had a wonderful hands-on lesson that demonstrated how food chains work. Since our school mascot is the owl, we’ve been doing quite a bit of reading about owls. We learned that owls swallow their prey whole and then regurgitate a pellet. These pellets contain the undigested bones and fur of their prey.

Delta Education is an organization that distributes the pellets. All pellets have been dried and sanitized. I can assure you that the class had no qualms about dissecting their pellets! Just look at the photos in the gallery; you will see eager scientists, immersed in the process. Over the entire afternoon, the students made comments about the types of bones they found. I’ve also enclosed a few photos of a few complete skeletons. We determined that our owls ate mice, shrews, voles, and even other birds. The class used a bone-sorting chart to identify the bones.

Also, many thanks to Mrs. Johnson for bringing our shoeboxes down to Central Union Church. We collected sixteen boxes for Operation Christmas Child! I was able to pack the boxes into a shipping box for them to be sent overseas. I know this was a heartwarming activity for you and your child. The children were so proud to bring in their boxes for those less fortunate. One second-grade boy shared that he received a thank-you letter last year from a boy in the Philippines! The boy used the stationery that was sent to him and even included a photo of himself. If any of you receive a note of thanks after the holidays, be sure to have your child bring it in to share with the class.

Speaking of thanks, we all have so much to be thankful for, not only at this time of year but every day! I am so thankful for the privilege of teaching your children. They are kind, enthusiastic, caring, and simply wonderful. I’m also grateful for teaching here at MPI. I’ve been fortunate enough to teach at other schools, and I can say that MPI truly is a caring community of dedicated professionals. Lastly, I’m thankful to you, the parents, who support your young learners in so many ways. I truly feel blessed to be a part of a school that values children, parents, faculty, staff, and administration. We’re all on this learning journey together! Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving next week.

Posted by Ms. LeBlanc at 3:48 PM | Permalink

What a busy month we have had. Your children have been immersed in learning about animals. Please check the class photo gallery to see some of the learning. We have had two guest speakers this month. Our first visitors were from the Dolphin Quest Program. Our speakers showed us a slide show about humpback whales. Although our class knew that no two humans have the same fingerprints, we learned that no two whales have the same fluke markings. You may have noticed a photo of your child outside wearing a fluke. We were pretending we were whales, and we acted out how whales communicate with each other, fight off predators, and have to avoid ocean pollution.

We also had a wonderful docent from the Honolulu Academy of Arts come to our classroom. As you can see, she brought many beautiful pieces of animal artwork, sculpture, and paintings from around the world. The best part of this program is that it allows the children to see, touch, and view the art at different angles. This way, when we go to the Academy of Arts tomorrow, we’ll be prepared to use only our eyes.

Lastly, the photos of pumpkin carving and Spooktivity speak for themselves. Thanks to all the parents and grandparents who came for pumpkin carving, the children really enjoyed your company and carving expertise. It also allowed them practice counting by 10’s. We had a grand total of 1,946 seeds in five pumpkins! Thanks to the Ruggieri family for roasting the seeds; we’ve ben enjoying them all week long. We were glad to hear that all children had a safe and fun Halloween.

Posted by Ms. LeBlanc at 1:56 PM | Permalink