Adventures in learning through inquiry…

Yesterday, Mrs. Baldwin’s friend, Adam Bellow, posted a memo from Apple that was sent to new employees.

Today, we wrote our own versions of this memo… what it’s like to learn at Anastasis. We’ll share a couple versions from different students throughout this week.

This is from Ryan:

There’s learning, and there’s understanding.

The kind of learning that you will use forever. Not just learning, this is your life’s learning. We don’t play it safe. We go all out with learning. You don’t get told you can’t do this and you can’t learn this. You can do anything you want to learn and understand. No homework, so more family time. No worksheets, but iPads and projects so you can understand.  And you can use this learning throughout your life. The learning that you like.

Welcome to Anastasis.

There’s learning, and there’s discovery.

The kind of learning that you discover each fact.

The type of learning that you would actually like.

That you would sacrifice a day of not realizing you’re learning.

You can “discover” here at Anastasis.

People join Anastasis for a reason.

We don’t take the chances of doing simple “fill In the blanks”.

We go to “Infinity and beyond!” of learning.

We want our discovery to mean something in the world.

Something learned, discovered, that couldn’t happen anywhere else.

Welcome to Anastasis.

Friday, April 13, we spent the day learning at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Before we left for the day, we discussed what things we would be looking for, what we hoped to learn from our trip, and how we would spend our day.

We visited several different parts of the Botanic Gardens: the Sensory Garden, Tropical Conservatory, Orangery, Japanese Garden, Birds and Bees Walk, Lilac Garden, Romantic Gardens, Herb Garden, Scripture Garden, and the Fragrance Garden. You can see an interactive map and list of individual gardens here.

We were lucky to see some artists at work with the Kizuna project. They were creating sculptures out of bamboo. Right after lunch, we had a chance to watch some of the artists stripping the bamboo to create a sculpture that would look like waves of water. They even gave us all cut ends of the bamboo!

After we toured each location, we stopped for about 5-7 minutes to write what we observed. Because we brought our iPads with us, we were able to capture photos and then write notes, too. This really helped us to remember the things we saw, what we learned, as well as those things we really liked!

Here are some posts written by our students, as well as some photos of our students at the gardens :

JB wrote:

Last Friday, our class went to the Botanic Gardens. It was really fun and I even got to see a carnivorous plant! The carnivorous plant that I saw was called the Pitcher Plant. The Pitcher Plant can attract then trap insects with a special liquid inside it’s “pouch”. Then, it absorbs the insect’s body and the insect is……eaten. I didn’t see it happen but, I still thought the plant was cool. I also saw a small, bushy herb called Lemon Balm. It had a strong lemon smell but it smelled SOOOOO good to me. I also saw some ducks, geese and even some koi that live there! There was also a plant called “The Buddha’s Hand.” It was a large, dark green plant with a strange looking fruit growing on it. The fruit was about the same color as the plant itself but it had a strange shape. It was shaped like some sort of claw thing. To me, It didn’t look like a fruit at all. The trip to The Botanic Gardens was pretty fun to me and I especially liked the Pitcher Plant. In fact, it might of been one of the most fun field trips I’ve ever had!

CC wrote:

We went to the Botanic Gardens and we saw lots of different plants. We also did a digital scavenger hunt. Many artists were working on bamboo sculptures too. We saw how the men cut the bamboo. They cut off the ends, then they used a bamboo stripper ( a tool that cuts bamboo into strips ).  They will weave it to look like a waves in the water. They gave us some of the ends that they cut off.
We went to the herb garden. We rubbed our fingers on the leaves. We smelled our fingers and they smelled like whatever the plant was. I liked lemon and catmint. We looked at cacti.  They store water inside themselves so they can live in hot places, like deserts. We went to the birds and bees walk and I saw some bees but not many birds. At the walk I saw a lace-bark tree. It looked like camouflage. There were some cool evergreen trees that were trimmed so they could look like very thick green poles. There were some cool flowers like tulips and the flamingo plant. There was a rainforest in a green house with stairs that went to the top, so we could see tall trees and more plants while looking down.
I also learned that when my iPad ran out of charge, it wasn’t just take a photo and go. I looked and read a little bit more. I learned to stop and enjoy things a little more.

We had a GREAT time at the Botanic Gardens!

We have been BUSY!

We started off this block discussing our theme, “Sharing the Planet,” and how personal choices WE make can change our planet.

Our first topic was to learn more about plants. During Block 4, we learned about the Animal, Plant, and Mineral Kingdoms and how we classify living and non-living things. Because we spent most of that block in the Animal Kingdom, we saved the Plant Kingdom for this block.

We started asking our questions-

• how do plants grow?
• what are the parts of plants and what do they do?
• are plants classified in the same way animals are classified?

We followed the directions in cutting the 2-liter bottle, measuring carefully. After adding the “wick” and the soil, we planted our seeds. We are growing spearmint, lavendar, rosemary, thyme, sage, and sweet marjoram.

Now, we’re on Day 13 of our plants already. We are keeping an observation journal for each day we are in the classroom. We take photos of our planters, note any changes we observe, etc. Some of us have decided we will talk to our plants to see if they grow more quickly. Some plants have already begun to sprout a little bit!

MK had this to say about her planting experience:

I got a lavender plant and I named it Courtney. We had to make a question and a hypothesis and mine were:  will the plant get stronger and healthier if you sing and/or talk to it? My hypothesis is yes it will because plants are living things. I also learned a lot about how what you do affects the plant. Like if you touch all the materials you are using with hand sanitizer or a chemical then the plant may not live.

We can’t wait to share photos of some herbs with you!

We took a little time today to appreciate the uniqueness of February 29.

 After watching a short video, we talked about why Leap Day is added to February every four years. Did you know that the earth revolves around the sun in 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds? If we didn’t add Leap Day on February 29 every four years, each year would be off about six hours. After 50 years, that would be 12 days! Our seasons would start at different times, and we would all be very confused. Leap Day helps us make up those extra hours!

Mrs. Baldwin shared with us that she has a cousin who was born on Leap Day. She is 11 Leap Years old.

We have also been talking about finding THEME in literature. Theme is the life lesson an author wants the reader to learn by reading his/her story. In a fable, the theme is the moral. In a parable, the theme is a lesson or teaching. We have read some parables, fables, and short stories to find themes. We’re also writing a short story or fable that will have a common theme – “Look before you leap.” Good timing, huh?

How did YOU celebrate Leap Day today?

Block 5 started last week. Our overarching question: “How we organize ourselves” feeds into our major theme of how money and economic decisions affect our lives. The students have been discussing trade, bartering, finances, budgeting, and even loans and interest.

In addition to learning how fractions and decimals relate, students have been learning how to count back change from the amount “spent” to the dollar amount of the bill given to the cashier.

February 9, the students held a Barter Market. Ryan R. wrote:

Yesterday we had a barter market! So we barter anything that we didn’t want from home. I almost forgot to tell you what bartering is. It is where you trade without money. Why we did this barter market is because we wanted to learn more about it by doing it. We had stuff  like stuffed animals, bounce balls, perfumes, lotions, earrings, hex bugs, and services,  and many more. For the past few days we have been working on bartering and playing games on it.

Interestingly, after a few rounds of bartering, the students learned that they might have to barter for something they didn’t necessarily want to get something they did want.

Upcoming activities: students will be creating their own businesses, learning how to calculate costs and profits. We will also start our own class economic system with a bank, earning opportunities, and a class store. Students will earn “Baldwin Bucks” each week and then learn about spending and saving.

The last two weeks, we have spent learning how living things grow. As this block is coming to an end, we are concentrating mostly on animals. We will learn more about plants and how they grow in Block 6.

Tuesday, January 17, we visited the Wildlife Experience in Denver. Some of our students blogged about their day and what we learned:

When we first got to the Wildlife Experience, we watched a movie about turtles. I thought it was a pretty cool movie. After the movie, we split up into two groups: one with all the kids in Mrs. Baldwin’s group, and another with all the kids in Mrs. Scott’s group.  (contributed by L.S.)

The program leader talked to us about opposable thumbs and how that is a physical adaptation that helps some animals, like primates. We also learned about behavioral adapations. She showed us a hog-nosed snake that flips over on its back and shows its colorful belly when predators are near. That behavior helps the snake to either hide from or scare away prey.

 We learned that when animals are active at night more than day, they are called nocturnal. When animals are more active at dawn and dusk, they are called crepuscular. When they are more active in the day, they are called diurnal. (contributed by R.R.)

We are also REALLY excited about our chicken egg incubator! Right now, we have about 18 eggs that we hope will hatch into chicks. We spent two days learning how to take care of eggs in the incubator, how the hens naturally incubate their eggs, as well as the whole cycle of the egg, from before the hen lays the eggs through hatching. We created projects on our iPads to help us understand the processes. Every day, we rotate the eggs in our incubator since they don’t have a mother hen to do that naturally.

Our Chicken Eggs

As we were learning about how the eggs form from the inside out before the hen lays them, we also learned about how a chicken develops from a tiny little cell. Right now, we’re talking in class about cells, what they’re made of, and how they divide to become different things. We will share what we learned in our next post!

Anastasis Academy was closed on Monday, January 16 in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. When we returned, we talked about Dr. King, his dream, the importance of his message, and his legacy. We watched video of his famous “I Have A Dream” speech and then read the text of the speech.

After some discussion about the speech, our class also spent time writing our own “Dream” speeches. We talked about things we wished would help make the world a better place. Here are a few examples of the first ideas:

• I have a dream that cars will stop running on gas, and we won’t have pollution from factories.
• I have a dream that no one will ever be bullied.
• I have a dream that all that all the people in America will get good jobs and earn enough money to receive good shelter and live good lives.
• I have a dream that we will all know God in Christ.
• I have a dream to help all people with cancer, to help them get through it all. I would love to make a machine that takes the cancer out without needles or scars.
• I have a dream that one day everyone in the world will stop killing animals that are not going to be eaten by someone and that endangered animals will be treated with respect.
• I  have a dream that all people can recycle and keep our planet green.
• I have a dream that we will stop making the world worse, and make it better… stop littering… ride our bikes or walk when we can…

As we continue in Block 4, learning how the world works, we have spent a lot of time learning how living things are identified. After learning about the classification system, we took a trip. The post below was written by a member of our class.

contributed by M.K.H.

Friday, December 9th,  our whole school went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. We brought our iPads so we could take a lot of pictures and videos.

Our class visited  the prehistoric expediiton and saw a lot cool stuff. We learned about the sea lilies and got to see a prehistoric turtle and dinosaurs. I saw a pterodactyl and a wholly mammoth skull and body. There were also people that were looking at new bone casts in a glassed- in room that had a bunch of tools and bones everywhere.

After the prehistoric exhibit, we got to see the T-Rex Encounter at the museum. There they had a bunch of animatronics that looked like dinosaurs. One was a T-Rex, one was a triceratops, and one was a velociraptor. There was also triceritops babies. We couldn’t take pictures in this exhibit, though.

That was a really cool trip and it was one of the best field trips! Here are some of our pictures:

What an amazing first week back from break! We returned to school Tuesday, January 3 and kicked off the beginning of Block 4. This block will help us learn more about nature and our surroundings:

How the World Works: An inquiry into the natural world and its laws, the interactions between the natural world (physical and biological) and human societies; how humans use their understanding of scientific principles; the impact of scientific and technological advances on society and on the environment.

Living things can be identified by physical characteristics.

Our first activity in Block 4 was talking about how things in nature can be classified into three areas. These areas are called Kingdoms. We studied about a man named Carl Linnaeus who helped create a system of classification that we use today. To help us understand the highest level of classification – Kingdom – we played a 20 Questions game with partners, and the first question was “Is it an Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral?” Not only did we learn how to ask good, specific questions during this game, but we also learned more about the things we were identifying. In one group, the “thing,” was a gorilla. After learning that the “thing” was an animal, the next questions were, “Is it a mammal?” “Is it bigger than a microwave oven?” “Does it walk mostly on four legs?”  As we played the game, the questions asked were better and more specific.

After learning about Regnum Animale (Animal Kingdom), Regnum Vegetabile (Plant Kingdom), and Regnum Lapideum (Mineral Kingdom), we learned more about the classification system: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. We spent some time learning about this hierarchy in the Animal Kingdom. We also created our own fictional animals in Genus and Species. We couldn’t use fictional Phyla, Classes, Orders, or Families, so we really had to think about the characteristics of the type of animals we were creating.

We finished the week with a look at dinosaurs and then a learning excursion to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. We traveled through the Prehistoric exhibit and the T-Rex experience while taking photos with our iPads to use for a project. It was a great experience!

I don’t know if there’s anything more exciting for a teacher than watching his/her students have a huge lightbulb moment during a learning activity. There are a lot of those moments at Anastasis!

Monday, we began discussing Vincent Van Gogh, his life, and his work. We have an artist coming to work with us this Friday, and Van Gogh and Impressionism will be our theme. Our group spent time researching Vincent Van Gogh with some group discussion comparing his early work (more realistic) and his later work (more influenced by Impressionism).

We then talked about how we could recreate one of his paintings using ceramic tiles. Each of us would paint a piece of a painting, but when we put all the tiles together, it would create the whole painting. Then we had some math to do.

• If a painting is 10 inches by 8 inches, what is the total area?
• Our ceramic tiles are 6 inches by 6 inches. What is the total area of each tile?
• In order to use these tiles, we will need to increase the size of the original painting. What dimensions could we use? How many tiles will we need? How many tiles will go across the width of the painting? How many tiles for the height of the painting?