Blog Archives
Cool Camouflage!!
You know I love all things Science (well almost all things!!) and helping my students explore the world around them is right up there!
I wanted to share this super simple idea that allows students to explore the idea of camouflage and helps them to understand why camouflage is so important to animals, insects, and sea creatures. With some nature themed fabrics and some super cute critters, my students were able to explore why animals are camouflaged.
We spent about an hour exploring all the ways we could best camouflage all of these animals and insects. It was very interesting to hear my students thinking about why they placed some of the animals and insects where they did to help hide them. We had fun after this taking those same animals and insects outside to try to camouflage them there!
Click here to read more about our fun adventures in camouflage and to get everything you’ll need!
Forces & Motion
For those of you who visit often, you know how much I LOVE Science! When I was asked to help write the new standards for science in Indiana, I knew right away that I wanted some Force & Motion standards in Kindergarten because there are lots of fun toys out there to help students understand how Force & Motion work.
Using a few very simple toys, I was able to help my students understand how they can affect Force and Motion. We used pinwheels, tops, spinning wheels, and several ramp kits. While working with these materials, my students not only had fun, but they learned about Force & Motion. We talked about how we can move the pinwheels with our breath, push the tops and spinning wheels in different directions, and help cars move more quickly or slowly down ramps by changing out the texture of the ramps!
Check out the fun we had here!
Seasonal Changes
With the change in seasons this week, I decided to share some activities with my kiddos that help them understand that there are different changes in each of the different seasons. These are all great activities that I can get out at the beginning of each new season and my students can learn new information each time!
We used the Earth Science File Folder Games, the Season Readers, and Create a Seasonal scene sticker activities from Oriental Trading to help us learn about and document our learning of the seasons!
My students ABSOLUTELY loved changing out the clothing options on the weather dog; one of the game options that is included in the Earth Science File Folder games.
Want to read more? Click here and find out how you can get your own seasonal supplies to enhance your students’ learning of the seasons!
Science Aprons
If you’ve been reading my blog for anytime at all, you know how much I like {ok–LOVE} science!! I was thrilled to be able to create some cute aprons for my students to wear when we “do” science experiments! They were super easy and quick to make and each one of my students will get to wear one each time we are investigating.
Check them out here and be sure to check out the book, “What is a Scientist?” to use to introduce science to your students!
Frog Foldable
We’ve been learning about tadpoles and how they grow into frogs ever since we got our tadpoles in our classroom. Because I had just attended our state science conference and learned how to make these super cool foldables, I thought I would try them out with my Kinders to organize our thoughts about tadpoles and frogs.
Dinah Zike is the master behind this foldable and I got this foldable from this book.
I used a 9×12 envelope and folded it as instructed in the book. We glued the side under the envelope flap into our Inquiry notebooks. I put a different colored “x” on each of the flaps and parts so I could show the children where to glue each part. On the two inside flaps, we glued a 5 green and speckled frogs song booklet and the life cycle of a frog accordion booklet. On the top back panel, we glued a model of a tadpole that can grow and change with our tadpoles. We hid the extra back and front legs in the secret pocket that you can open from the flap. On top of the secret pocket, we glued a life cycle fold up book.
On top of the envelope (when its all closed up and folded), we glued a frog tree map that we completed together. They turned out really great and I’m working on creating them for sale. We are going to create a new one next week for farms, so I’ll show you those soon!
Informational Writing
We’ve been working on writing for a purpose and after reading Zinna’s Flower Garden we wrote in the same style as Monica Wellington and created informational posters about our tadpoles.
In this book, Monica Wellington places the text in the center of the page and then surrounds it with information about tools, seeds, plant parts, weather, etc.
So we created our writing to reflect that. These pages are samples that are about 1/2 way completed. The children put text or an illustration with labels in the middle and then added tools, objects, materials, other animals they would see or need in the context of their text.
This sample is all about catfish and is surrounded by items you would need to keep a catfish in an aquarium.
This sample is about tadpoles living in a pond, so you can see other critters you might see in or around the pond.
The last sample is about keeping tadpoles in our classroom. The image in the middle shows where we keep the tadpoles and around the outside, you can see the beginnings of the tadpole life cycle.
This was a fun way to incorporate what we were reading and what a real author had done into our writing.
Spring has Sprung!
We are getting geared up to start out Ponds and Plants unit and I can’t wait to get out my unit to get my planning started!
This pack has 6 math, 3 Literacy, and 7 Science Notebook pages!
This is a sampling of what’s included!
I’m glad its here! I can’t stand winter (and my arthritis hates it too!), so I’m glad to see 60 degrees again! 🙂
Who’s Who and Who’s New Post
I’m thrilled to have a post to share with you about simple science ideas on the Who’s Who and Who’s New blog today! Click here to check it out! You can download some free handouts while you’re there too! 🙂
Kristen's Kindergarten 