Monthly Archives: April 2013
Creative Help! :)
I’m in a creative slump here…and I need your help! I’d like to create some more items to sell (or that could be freebies) in my Tpt store…but I’m stuck on ideas…is there anything you need for your classroom that I might be able to create for you? I’ll try to get to all requests as fast as I can, but if you can give me a time frame for when you might need it, I can hopefully get them done for you! 🙂 Once they are done, I’ll post them for sale and the original contributor will receive their item for free. 🙂
Any ideas?? 🙂 I’ll do my best to create something for you. I do have a large collection of clip art, but there are some items I might not be able to create, so I’ll let you know if that happens. 🙂
Kristen 🙂
Math Work Stations
Here are some of the newest math work stations I’ve introduced to my kiddos:
This activity comes from my blogging friend Greg! This is from his Snapping Numbers, Composing and Decomposing Numbers pack. 🙂 The kiddos use the Legos to compose and decompose different numbers. The kids thinks it’s SO cool to use Legos to “do” math!
Here we are adding ladybugs! This activity is from Lakeshore. 🙂
Six ways to Make 5 is from Maria Manore @ Kinder-Craze. This is a great decomposing activity for K kids to do. Maria’s got a sheet from numbers 3-10, so you can keep exploring numbers. 🙂
This 10 Frame Activity is from my Plants and Ponds pack. 🙂 The kiddos fill in the rest of the 10 frame and then write a number sentence to show the two numbers that make 10. 🙂
Kristen 🙂
Roots
Sorry it’s been so long since I last posted. I’ve been in San Antonio attending NSTA (National Science Teachers Association) Conference. I was there last week and I’m getting caught up on everything! I had a great time there and was able to attend over 20 different workshops all about difference science ideas! I’ll be sharing them in the future, but for the time being, here is a look at the science lab we did late last week. 🙂
Will our roots grow up or down? We planted some lima bean seeds last week and after they spout, we will check to see if after moving the bags around, will the roots keep growing in the same direction. Here we are planting our beans:
Folding the paper towel…
Squirting it with water to moisten the paper towel.
These are our Science Notebooks laid our for us to use when we are done planting seeds. 
Here is everyone planting! 🙂
This is how we started our science notebook entry for our beans.
Here they are all planted and hanging in the window. 🙂
Kristen 🙂
Observing Plants
As part of our IB/Science unit, we are learning about plant parts. The National Geographic science curriculum suggested that I bring in real plants to let the kids observe. It’s been frozen here for so long, nothing is growing yet, so I looked around for some other options:
This was grass that the snow plow dug up when plowing our parking lot. Free roots! 🙂
I found these tulips in this cool vase at Wal-Mart early last week and the tulips have grown from just over the top of the vase to this in 1 1/2 weeks. 
This was my Amaryllis bulb from Christmas. I was letting it die all the way back before storing it for next year.
The kids were given one plant to observe and take notes about it in their science notebook:
We had to wear our safety goggles. We also used our magnifying glasses. 🙂
Kristen 😉
Eggs
Our incubator is now playing host to 12 lovely eggs. 11 brown and 1 white shelled eggs. Today was day 2 in their 21 day cycle:
We use HovaBator incubators and got ours from Frey Scientific. The eggs came from a friends’ farm. 🙂
Because we are learning all about the chicken life cycle, I used some of my K blogging friends chicken themed products.
This awesome emergent reader is from my blogging friend Maria. She creates the most amazing readers and sells them on her TPT site. 🙂 This reader is called, “Now the chick grows.” Here are my kiddos cutting the letters out and spelling “now” in their readers. 
This pack is from my blogging friend Jennifer at Herding Katz in Kindergarten. Her pack is AMAZING! I’ve already used the Chicken Life Cycle reader (using it in my guided reading groups next week!!) and the Incubator Observation booklet. We also used the Incubator Calendar and we are recording information about the “going ons” inside the egg each day. There are so many things to use in this pack, I don’t know if I’ll be able to use it all! 🙂
Kristen 🙂
Kristen's Kindergarten 