Geography Inquiry: Exploring Our Amazing World!

Geography Inquiry
Our room is beginning to transform! We started the week with the mind-map, “What is Geography?” The discussion explored the relationship of geology to the study of geography and, as one child put it, “the evolution of the earth.” The children also decided that landforms, climates, maps and globes, and the people, plants, and animals that inhabit different geographical environments should be a part of our study.

This week, the children demonstrated their knowledge of the world by drawing world maps and labeling places they know or have been. You can just imagine how wonderfully inaccurate these are! Be sure and stop in and have a look! This is our starting point for learning about the continents: how they formed, their names, and the landforms, climates, and inhabitants of each. It will be interesting to compare these with the maps they draw at the end of our Inquiry study. What would your map of the world look like?

How You Can Help!
We need “experts” to come in and talk with us about anything related to geography. We have so many international and internationally-minded parents. I hope many of you will consider sharing a special place on our planet with the children through stories, photos, songs, dances, art activities, food, artifacts or anything that will create interest in the world and promote their love of learning. We also look forward to having lots of parents in the classroom to help with our research in a few weeks.

In addition, you can help us by sending in books and magazines that showcase the earth and its inhabitants. Please let us know if it is OK to cut pictures from the magazines when you send them. We need pictures to create poster-collages of each continent. Thank you, in advance, for your help with this Inquiry!

Math
The 1st Graders are busy learning about place value this week. They are learning to count by ones, tens, and hundreds to create two- and three-digit numbers.

The 2nd Graders are hard at work learning about time. They have mastered the hour and half hour, and will work on the quarter hour the rest of this week. On Friday, the class will become a giant clock to help us all understand the 5-minute intervals and the 2nd Graders to tell time to the minute.

Reading and Writer’s Workshop
The children are enjoying their reading and actively sharing their books with the class. We are reading a great book by Wiley Miller, creator of the comic strip “Non Sequitur.” It is called The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Basil. Ask your children about it. I think it will inspire them to use their imaginations in their writing. We are also reading various versions of fairy tales. Ask them to tell you about the one with three little wolves and a big bad pig. I’m hoping their imaginations will be tickled by these humorous stories.

Your children have returned this semester with their wonderful, inspiring enthusiasm and joy of learning alive and well. Once again, your task and mine will be to try to keep up with their interests and need to know. On we go!!

Posted on January 18, 2007 12:16 PM | Permalink