Five for Friday: Wild about Learning

As we inch closer to the end of the school year... the kids get a little...well... WILD and CRAZY! Why fight it? I say - Go With It! We learned about WILD animals and visited the zoo this week.

I'm linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching with five highlights from this week.

It rained every day this week except the day of our zoo field trip. Answer to prayer! It was a little chilly, but the animals were active. Everyone had a good time!

My kids brought quarters to feed the petting zoo animals. The petting zoo only had two goats the day we were there. They ate about $5 worth of food. It was a good day to be a goat!

 The peacocks are always my favorite. Simply beautiful.

My kids were intrigued (and slightly terrified) by the dear antlers and skulls adorning the wolf exhibit (even though they were on the outside of the fence).

When we came back from the zoo we sang the following chant to share what our favorite animal was before writing about it.

"peacock, peacock",

I said at the zoo,

"peacock, peacock

I like you!"

 

 

How sweet is this? The second graders invited grandmas and moms with culinary passion to help them make lefse as part of their social studies cultures unit. They blessed all of the teachers with a piece of deliciousness. (I've learned to "pour" the sugar out of the lefse before eating it. Evidently there can never be "too much" sugar according to second graders.)

With our wealth of critter knowledge from the last two weeks we wrote animal riddles for each other to solve. I let each child pick a different animal to write about. Can you guess?

I have a confession.... I secretly adore pandas. I couldn't resist throwing in a mini unit.
I have another confession. I am sick of "can, have, are" charts. We've done them for ladybugs, frogs, spiders, polar bears, penguins. Ugh.

To change it up, I decided to introduce the concept of "fact and opinion" with the panda topic. It's a big concept for kindergarteners, but I think they understood the general idea.

First we sorted statements such as "pink is the best color" (opinion), "bananas have a peel" (fact). It got a little dicey with the statement "My teacher is the best teacher in the whole world!" (opinion). They all shouted out "FACT!"  I wanted to say "correct!" ... but that would have jeopardized the lesson.

Each day we read a chapter about pandas. Here was our final product:

"I would like if they had mustaches!"

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5...4! Four days left of school and four more surprises to reveal. Our favorite so far? POPsicles!

Five for Friday: Start the Countdown!

Happy Friday! I'm linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching with five happenings from this week.

The countdown is on! There are only 10 days left of school! Can it be true?

We are celebrating with a Balloon Bash Countdown.

Each day we will pop a balloon to retrieve a note saying what our special activity or treat is for the day.

Shhh! If you promise not to tell....

10. Mystery Reader! (This class hasn't met the Mr. yet. They keep asking if he will visit. One little girl wrote me a note this week: "I love you, but when is your husband going to come to school?" No joke!)
9. Books and Beach Towels
8. Nature Hunt and Sidewalk Chalk
7. Lunch in the classroom
6. Visit the Zoo and Pick a Prize
5. The Principal is our Sub for the morning!
4. Game Show: Bible Trivia
3. Movie with POPcorn
2. POPsicles
1. Extra recess and "Blasting off into First Grade" science experiment

We talked about all of the wonderful things our moms do for us. All of the things they teach us.  Happy Mother's Day! Moms - we love you! You do so much for these little ones. You are selfless love in action!

We decorated pots and added some flowers to surprise our mothers with. (*fingers crossed* Please make it home little plant.. the bus ride home on a Friday is... well, ... the odds are not in your favor!)

Mother's Day cards

Things are getting "wild". (And I'm not just talking about my kids!) We are going to the zoo next week, and started our wild animals unit in preparation. On Wednesday, we left the safety of our classroom and went on a safari (the halls of our school). You wouldn't believe the wild animals we saw! The zebra were always spotted by the watering hole (water fountain).

At the conclusion of our safari, we discussed our graphs: "What animals did we see the most of?", "Which animals did we see equal numbers of?"

Two years ago I decided to go back to school. I figured if I didn't do it now... I never would. I decided to pursue a Master's degree in Curriculum & Instruction with a focus in Literacy since I thought it had the most application for teaching kindergarten.  Teaching reading has always amazed me. I wanted to gain more strategies in successfully unlocking the gift of reading for each student. It's been a long road, many lesson plans, quizzes, projects.... but I submitted my last assignment this week. I'M DONE! Forever! Time to burnt that APA manual.

Can't wait to read a book... that's not a textbook! A book for enjoyment? What a novel idea!

 

Math journals were a new endeavor this year. I plan to continue doing them. I liked the sense of ownership they gave my students. (Since we have quite a few pages left, I plan to send them home with a list of journal prompts to work on over the summer for added practice.) Here was our journal prompt yesterday:

(If you're wondering..."dics" = dice, "Phoun" = phone,  and "melck" = milk.)

Enjoy the weekend!

Book Study: Chapter 3: Field Trips

For this week's blogging book study: Chapter 3 of Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites by Marcia L. Tate, I'm linking up with Miss Wills' Kindergarten.
 
After last week's linky about Chapter 1&2 hosted by Elizabeth at Kinckin' It in Kindergarten , I couldn't wait to to keep reading...

But... to be completely honest.... when I read the title for Chapter 3: Field Trips.... I had unpleasant memories of...

- coordinating busing
- rescheduling due to inclement weather
- bus rides (ibuprofen please)
- counting my students over and over (2, 4, 6, 8...) 

- Where's Jimmy's buddy?
- convincing students that the port-a-potty is their only option at the pumpkin patch...


THEN I read.... field trips don't have to involve all of that....STRESS! They can be outside on the playground, under the tree in the school's front yard. *sigh of relief*


To put it plainly - field trips are REAL word experience. Get out of the classroom! Change of setting! Show the connection between what they are learning in the classroom and REAL LIFE!

What are the benefits?

So glad you asked! 

For students, the following are enhanced by field trips: higher-order thinking skills, observation, questioning skills, confidence,  positive attitude, deeper memory, capacity for memory....

Every May we go on 2 "field trips" involving animals. First, our local zoo...and... an at-school safari!

We set out from the safety of our classroom... into the wild savanna (aka: school hallways. They can be wild.)

Get your own copy of this Zoo Animal Safari graph HERE.

 Each time we see an animal.... we graph it.

Along our safari, we discuss our graphs: "Have we encountered more lions or cheetahs?", "Which animal have we seen the most?"

 

It's amazing how excited my class gets about this activity. They usually don't get that excited about graphing in class... point proven - get out of the classroom!


Earlier in the year, during our shapes unit... we go on a Shape Hunt with our ipad.

Found a Sphere!

Rectangular Prism

Since we have a limit of 2 field trips per year, we've found other ways to bring REAL word experiences INTO the classroom.

One family at our school raises ducks each spring. This picture is from a few years ago when they brought a few ducklings in for the class to "ooooo and ahhhh" over. The mom shared some amazing facts about ducks and how God gave them unique features and instincts to survive.

I want one!

Come join our book study!
Next week is all about using games to enhance learning. GAME ON!

Who Has These Feet? Class Book FREEBIE

We are currently finishing the Animals unit in our reading curriculum. One of my favorite literacy activities I added this year was reading Who Has These Feet? by Laura Hulbert.

On each page it shows a close up picture of a certain animal's feet. We choral read the question: "Who has these feet?" Before turning the page, we took turns guessing which animal the feet belonged to.  I love that this book includes cool facts about how various foot features help each animal.

We made our own Who Has These Feet? class book.

I took pictures of each student's "feet" for the illustrations.

They added their names along with a self portrait on the second page. So cute!

Click HERE to download this FREE book template

This book has been frequently checked out of our classroom library. Click on the link above to download the FREE template to make your own class book!