Earth Day

  Hello there! Welcome back! Last week in kindergarten world we learned about Earth, and what we can do to take care of it.  

Here are the highlights...

I started out the week by reading a lot of non fiction books about taking care of our Earth.  The books pictured above have good information, and the kids really enjoy them!

After we read many books about Earth we filled out this chart.  

My class used the chart above to write about what they learned about Earth.

My kinders learned about how the Earth is made of land, air, and water.  I purchased this mini unit from Kristen Smith.  It's a perfect edition to my Earth Day unit.  

My class sorted pictures that are in the air, water, and land (this sort is included in mini unit).  

Each child in my class brought in one item that can be recycled.  The recyclable items are then sorted into the appropriate bag.  The reason why you don't see a glass bag is because I am the one in charge of bringing in glass that way their are no accidents!

To tie it all together I made this board using the recyclable items that they brought in.  I sorted each item under cardboard, glass, metal, paper, and plastic and then typed up things that can be made out of that material.

One of the best field trips I take my class on is to our local dump and recycling center.  My kinders see first hand how much garbage from our community goes into a landfill.   Also, they learn about how the items we recycle are separated and turned into something new.   

We made this recycling book to show different things that can be recycled.  This book was a freebie from A Teachable Teacher it can be found here. 

After learning about recycling we turned our focus on composting.  The wonderful school I work for has the kids make compost out of the food that is thrown away.  This compost then makes its way into our Growing Domes to grow vegetables and fruits.  

 

I had my class watch this cute Peppa Pig cartoon all about composting.  Afterwards, I used the recycling and composting anchor charts above to have my class sort pictures of things that can be recycled or composted. 

My class loves making hats! We make them for everything!  I was so excited to find this adorable Earth Day hat.  Find it here.

Looking for some Earth Day videos to show your class? 

Look no further...

Harry Kindergarten - Going Green

Harry Kindergarten - If You're a kid(Earth Day Remix) 

My class LOVES these!

Jack Johnson- Recycling Song 3R's 

Happy Earth Day! 

Easter Fun

Hi there, I wanted to pop in and share some fun ideas for celebrating Easter and Spring in your classroom.  

Every year I have my kinders and their families make a hat for them to wear in our spring hat parade. The cool thing about this project is that there are no rules. Well, maybe one rule... be creative and most of all have fun! 

I love to collect books to read for the holidays, but I must admit sometimes it gets out of hand. I have absolutely no room to store anymore books, and yet, I still buy them.  The books pictured above are some of my favorite Easter books.

We estimated how many marshmallows are in the jar and recorded their guesses on the chart below.

I decided to use some of the MILLIONS of plastic eggs that I have acquired to make a game to practice sight words. First, I wrote out each sight word and cut it into a puzzle then placed it into an egg. One way to play this amazingly FUN game is to have the class sit in a circle on the floor with their interactive journals or some type of recording sheet.  I gave each child an egg and had them pass the eggs while I played the song Here Comes Peter Cottontail.  When the song stopped they opened their egg and put together their sight word and recorded in their journal.  The second way to play this game is to put an egg on each of their desks and have them walk around until you stop the music.  When the music stops they sit down and put the sight word together and record it.  My class had a ball playing this game!

I read this cute book to my class and had them design their own egg for the Easter Bunny. 

Once their egg was finished they wrote about what it looked like.  The picture above shows their first draft (I forgot to take a pic of the final draft). 

The Easter Bunny was a popular topic for journal entries.  

I inherited quite a few strawberry baskets, and I thought it might be fun for my kinders to turn them in to Easter baskets.  They turned out pretty darn cute!  They also dyed eggs to put into their baskets along with candy treats that the parents donated.

These are the baskets that I had my kinders weave last year.  These are my favorite!

I thought this bunny craft turned out adorable.  The bunny is made out of their handprint... so cute!

Look at the face on this bunny... so sweet!

We read many books about spring and used our new knowledge to make this chart.

With the help of the chart above they wrote two sentences about spring.  The first sentence we wrote together and the second they did independently.

Here is a close up picture of one of my kinders writing.

I had my class watercolor spring flowers and glue butterflies and ants on their picture. 

Then they filled out their math word problem based on their picture.

The Easter Bunny hopped thru our classroom and left his footprints.  My class got a kick out of this!

I'll leave you with a cute video.

Happy Easter!