Five for Friday: Kicking off Colors

We are having a blast with colors this week! Since it was a short week with in-service yesterday and today, we will continue our "Colors in God's World" unit next week. Each day we dress in the color of the day starting with red and going through the rainbow. (We add white day and favorite color day to fill in the remaining days.) Thanks Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching for Hosting the linky!

You can't learn about colors without tasting the rainbow! This is a yummy way to review the concepts of real and bar graphs, more and less,... and good practice writing color words. I will introduce sight word wallets to my students next week with our first word list being color words.

Walking Water Experiment. We do a plethora of color mixing activities but this one was by far my favorite. I was just as excited as the kids.

You can see the colored water travel up the paper towel right away. We watched for a few minutes and then did another activity before coming back to see 1/2 the glass full of green water!

Cara at First Grade Parade has a walking water recording sheet FREEBIE you can download HERE.

We've been comparing numbers and values in math. Their favorite partner game is "war".
 

Here was a record breaking triple war! Not only have we practiced comparing numbers, but how to be a good sport. At the end of every game in our classroom I have the kids tell each other "good game" or another positive remark "I enjoyed playing with you", "thanks for playing"...

This was a small group math station: More or Less? Students would grab a handful of colored cubes. After sorting out the two colors, they would record the number of each and circle which had more. This game can be found at Shari Sloane's website HERE.

You can't have "green day" without reading Leo Lionni's Little Blue and Little Yellow.

Here is a fun extension to the read aloud. Students get one blue and one yellow ball of play-doh to combine and make green.

Recipe directions: gradually stir liquid into dry ingredients. cook over medium hear stirring constantly until mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat. when cool to touch knead until smooth. Store in airtight container.

 The Kool-Aid makes it smell heavenly! Mmm!

I love to make treats. It's my way of loving people. Whenever someone has a birthday, a baby,... a good reason.... I make treats! One of my dearest friends celebrated a birthday this week and I made her molten lava cakes. You will want to try this recipe. Trust me. I like them plain but you can add whipped cream or raspberries on top. Click on the picture for a link to the recipe.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mission Exploration: Using our Five Senses

"Our Five Senses" is a unit I do each spring. My students enjoy learning how their senses help them explore and learn about the world around them.

I usually focus on one sense each day. Monday - sight, Tuesday - hearing...

We did a plethora of hands-on activities, here are just a few...

Sense of Sight

We briefly learned about the parts of an eye and then graphed our eye color.

If I would have realize how many students had blue eyes,
I would have created my graph a little taller!

During this unit, our Bible lessons focus on the miracles Jesus did during his ministry. When learning about how Jesus gave sight to the blind man I shared how Jesus has power over spiritual blindness - He is the Light of the World (John 8:12)! I wasn't sure my kiddos were understanding the analogy until one girl said "That's like the song 'Open the Eyes of my Heart Lord'!" I happened to have that song on CD, so we popped it in and sang the chorus together. Those unplanned "lesson diversions" are the best!

This was a fun transitional activity using our eyes AND brains: What's Missing?

Look at the left picture and then the right. Can you tell what's missing?

Let me tell you... students had skill! I had to start taking away two items at time.

Sense of Taste

This next activity is totally worth the prep time... just to see their reactions! We talk about how our tongue is like a map - different parts of our tongue taste different kinds of food. As we taste tested we categorized: Is it salty? Sweet? Sour? Bitter?

I couldn't help laughing at the reactions to the pure lemon juice. Haha! One little guy shook all over with a cringing face... and then gave it a double thumbs up. 

Each time we tasted an item, I had everyone show me if they did or didn't like it by circling or "X"ing the picture on their recording sheet. I took a tally of each item on the whiteboard.

When we were done, we counted the tallies for each item and figured out which "tastes" were our favorites. Can you believe popcorn and M&Ms beat out straight cocoa powder? Crazy kids!

Sense of Hearing

This bingo activity was a highlight when we learned about our sense of hearing.

(Be prepared for laughter.... one sound is a flushing toilet. Haha!)

Sense of Smell

We passed around these containers, each taking a sniff, to see if our brains could recognize the smells. They did very well (considering it's allergy season...didn't think that one through...) I gave a few clues as the smell was being passed around: "You may have smelled this when dying eggs for Easter. (vinegar)"

One girl said the taco seasoning canister smelled like her grandma's dog's breathe!

Sense of Touch

Each student got a turn to put their hands in the "feely" box and try to figure out the mystery object. I would choose one from my pencil box and they would describe what they were feeling for the class. They came up with some creative adjectives!

What activities do you do when teaching about our Five Senses?

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!