Space

Hello! 

Welcome back to my blog!  

For the last few weeks my class has been going crazy over space! They absolutely LOVE anything that is space related, and are truly excited to learn as much as they can about the topic.  So, me, being the nice teacher that I am, gave them what they want... 

We started our journey into the world unknown by recording our schema on the chart above.

I read many books about space these are some of my favorites.

I used this book to introduce the planets.  

My class loved this chart! We added facts below each planet as we learned about them.  We also learned about the sun, and decided to add it to the chart (even though it's not a planet) to record the information that we learned.

Next, I recorded their new learning on the chart, and found a few misconceptions (things we thought were true, but turned out not to be).   An example of a misconception (this will make you laugh) was that penguins live on Pluto.  My little kinder truly believed this, but the rest of the class knew that this didn't sound right, especially because we just learned about penguins.  Ah, 5 year olds say the funniest things!

Next, we read the  book Life in Space and learned all about what astronauts do.   We filled out this anchor chart as we read.  This anchor chart came from here. 

My class used the chart above to write about astronauts.

To top it off, we made ourselves into astronauts! They turned out amazing, if I don't say so myself!

We read this book about the Moon.

I made this fun chart to put our Moon facts on.  The idea for this chart came from here.

Here are a couple of Space units that I added to our center rotations this week. I rolled up foil, and called them Moon rocks.  In the Moon rocks I put stars that have CVC and CVCE words written on them.  The object was to read the word on the star, and sort it under long or short vowels.  Then, write and read all the words in each category.  

This is one of my older centers that is in desperate need of an update! The object of this center is to fill in the blanks of the sentence, and write it on a white board.  I heard A LOT of giggles coming from this center!

I did a directed space drawing. I found my inspiration for this here.

We drew with a pencil first, and colored it in. Then, we took black watercolor and painted over it.

Here is the finished product.

One of my talented students made me a list of all the planets.  I love this!

Here are a few YouTube video that my class enjoyed.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope this post was out of this world!

Penguins, Winter, and more Penguins

Hello Friends!!!  It's that time of year when my class learns about Penguins.  This unit is always fun for me to teach because of the fascination, and curiosity the kids have about Penguins.  In fact, they are still talking about Penguins, which makes me happy that they got so much out of it. 

Here are the highlights of ...

PENGUINS, WINTER, and more PENGUINS 

I started out the unit with a KWL chart. We charted what they already knew, and wanted to know about Penguins.  

I read a variety of non fiction books about Penguins to my class.  These are a few of my favorites.

I taught a mini lesson about the continents & oceans, and then we marked where Penguins live around the world.

We learned about the parts of a Penguin by using this diagram.

After reading a few non fiction books about Penguins we completed this anchor chart about what they learned.

The kids used the chart above to write three sentences about Penguins.

 My class made their own Penguin by cutting different shapes out of construction paper.

Here are a few of my favorite YouTube videos about Penguins.

We focused our learning on the Emperor Penguins- this particular video is amazing!

We also observed Penguins by watching these two live Penguin cams. 

Sea World Penguin Cam

Monterey Bay Aquarium Penguin Cam

Moving on to Winter...

My class painted these cute snowmen, and measured how tall they were with linking cubes.  Also, they practiced making an addition sentence with the eyes and nose of their snowman. This idea came from Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten.

My class used watercolors to make a snowflake.

We learned all about winter by reading these non fiction books.

We recorded our learning on a bubble chart (forgot the picture).

Here is a picture of one of my winter themed centers.  I wrote cvc words on blue paper and then crumpled them up like a snowball.  The kids had to read the word and place it on the correct chunk. We played this game whole class a few times before it went into my center rotation.

After this post I'm so ready for spring!!!! How about you?

February Fun!

Love is in the air... take a look

Valentine art makes my heart happy! The heart fish and butterflies are what graced the walls in my classroom for February. Simple but adorable.  In addition, to the heart themed art we learned a poem titled Valentine.  

Here are a few of my favorite valentine themed books. 

This months family project was to create a mailbox using recycled materials.  The finished products always amaze me! I love how the children feel so proud of their creation.

It's always a challenge to think of new ways to engage five and six year olds, especially when practicing a new skill.  With that in mind, I set out to create a game that would allow the kids to practice  adding with the help of a number line.  The game is simple - one child throws a heart shaped beanbag and hits a number on the red heart and another student throws the beanbag and hits a number on the white heart. 

  

A student recorded the number sentence on my board (pictured below) and the class recorded the equation in their interactive journal (pictured below). We then used the number line to find the sum.

My class loved this game! 

One of my all time favorite Valentine books is called the Valentine Surprise.  The main character in the story makes a bunch of different shaped hearts while trying to create the perfect heart.  After reading the story we graphed which heart they liked the best.

We analyzed the data in the picture graph (sorry it was cut off in this picture). 

I created yet another game this time to allow my class to practice making/ reading cvc and cvce words.

The life size game board really grabbed their full attention.  Here's how it works - first one student rolls the die and moves the game piece that many spaces. Another student turns over a card in the center of the game board.  We put the onset and rime together and read the word.  The class had their interactive journals in front of the them to record the words.  We made two categories real/ nonsense.  If the game piece landed on "pick a friend" the child who rolled the die would pick a friend to help them make a word.  If the piece landed on "nonsense word" we had to make a nonsense word with the card that was turned over.

Here is another picture of the game board.  The hearts are from the dollar store.

On Valentines Day my class sorted and graphed their conversation hearts.  This activity is always a hit with the kinders!

During writers workshop my class worked on writing two sentences the first one telling who they would give their valentine to, and the second to describe their valentine. 

I love art projects that require the kids to be creative- this one sure fits the bill.  I gave each table a bunch of different materials, and told them to decorate their heart... simple as that!

Happy Valentines Day!