Rockin' Science Exploration

This year I added a lesson on rocks to branch off of our fossil/dinosaur unit. I'm always looking to add more opportunities for hands-on science explorations.

I personally think rocks are awesome! (Especially when they are sparkly. And on my finger.) Fine, I like other rocks too!

A few years ago, when I taught Pre-K, a parent (with a masters in geology) donated a suitcase-full of cool rocks!

There was petrified wood, marble, pink quartz, granite, hematite, pumice, jasper... (am I impressing you with my rock knowledge yet?) Even a cool leaf fossil!

My mom also had quite the polished rock collection that she so generously lent me for this lesson.

During free choice, I called over a small group of kids at a time to tour our "Rock Museum".  I couldn't help but laugh at the crazy things they said while exploring: "This rock feels like chocolate - I just want to eat it!" (Don't worry, I kept a close eye on him!) Another student, while looking at the fool's gold, "I've dreamed of seeing this rock...in my dreams."

At the end of their "tour", I had them choose their favorite rock and write a description.

My favorite rock is "purple and smooth and also my favorite color".

The inspiration for this "rock report" idea came from Kindergarten... Kindergarten...'s Rock and Roll blog post. Head on over for more ideas that "rock". Hehe! (I can't help it!) Kathryn also has a PowerPoint download titled Rocks are Everywhere. I had this projected on the whiteboard when my students returned from recess and I overheard our future worship leader singing "Rocks are everywhere, rocks are everywhere...even in my shoes!" (That's some good material. I think Harry Kindergarten could work some magic with those lyrics. Don't ya think?)

This book briefly touched on some more advanced rock concepts like classifying rocks and how they are formed.

Earlier this year one little boy came up to me and said: "Do you know how God is like our rock? Because when we build our life on Him, when trouble comes, we will stay strong!"  I could not have put it a better way! From the mouths of babes!

My God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. ~2 Samuel 22:3

Five for Friday:Under the Sea

Hello friends! It's Friday... again! The weeks are flying by! I'm linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching.

Here are my five randoms from this week....

We "dove" into our ocean unit this week.
I used our literacy block to have my students work on mini ocean animal reports. Now that we are "practically first graders"... we were ready for a multiple step writing project.

I let them choose which animal they'd like to research. This year dolphins took the lead... surprising! It's usually sharks.

Each day we researched a topic: habitat, characteristics, diet, interesting facts...

I model how to use the contents page to search for specific information.

We are really working on starting our sentences with a capital letter and ending with a punctuation mark. If I catch them remembering these things without a prompt, I'll draw a doodle of their choice (shooting star, smiley face) on their hand with a colored marker. I guess it's like a little "Way to go!" tattoo.

During free choice time this week I had a variety of ocean animal coloring pages for everyone to color, cut, and add to our ocean habitat mural.

I was surprised at how many students wanted to spend their precious play time adding to it.
Maybe these bad boys were the real draw....

Mr. Sketch Markers!

I recently added them as a privilege students can earn - a box of Mr. Sketch Markers for the day. This week they were open to the public. (Families are probably wondering why their kiddos are coming home with a rainbow spotted noses?!? The cinnamon scent is my personal fave!)

Next, we will add labels to each ocean creature.

 Here was another one of their favorite centers this week - sea shells!

They sorted them and measured them... oh, and tried to look for pearls. Hehe! Since they couldn't find any, I added some plastic pearl beads for them to pretend with.

Our new favorite sight word activity..."Beach Ball Sight Words"!

We stand in a circle and toss the ball. Whoever catches it spells the sight word closest to their right hand. The other students raise their hands if they know it. The catcher calls on someone to say what word was spelled. If correct, they get to catch the ball and have the next turn. 

Our school had their annual Spring Banquet and Actions last week. One item up for bid was a 1/2 day off for your teacher of choice.... subbing services provided by none other than our principal.

Guess which lucky duck got it this year? Bam!

Two student families went in on bidding on it for me. I feel so special. I think it's cool that our principal is willing to come into our classrooms and teach for 1/2 a day. My kids think he's a rock star.

Looks like I'll have to plan a "Treat Yo Self" afternoon... I'm thinking lunch, shopping, and massage!

Each year we order painted lady butterfly caterpillars from Insect Lore. My students love watching them grow, molt, and eventually emerge from their chrysalises as beautiful butterflies! Our little caterpillars seem to change in size each day. They will be forming their chrysalises soon.

One student said with excitement "We should let them go free on the last day of school!" (Which is fast approaching. Can it really be May in 2 weeks!?!)

I plan my butterfly unit around the time the butterflies are predicted to hatch. I don't mind stopping our lesson to rally around the net to welcome each new butterfly into the world. Priceless moments.




Have a happy weekend!

Five for Friday!

Happy Friday! Time for my favorite linky. Thanks Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting!

There are many perks of working at a K-12 school:

1) I have an amazing high school student who comes in for one period a day to help out in the classroom.
And...
2) They always have left over pie each year when they celebrate "pi" day.
(You should have seen how excited all of those math fanatics were this year since the date for pi day  had "15" [the next 2 numbers after 3.14 in pi].... 3.14.15) Hey, I'll be that excited if it involves pie :)

We continued on with our plant unit this week. Our focus when reading about sunflowers was describing words. After reading about sunflowers, each student wrote one word on a post-it and stuck it to our chart.
These words made a reappearance in our journals.

I was impressed that one of my students knew that these words were called "adjectives". When I asked how she knew that, she replied "My family plays a lot of MadLibs".

"Beautiful, Humungous, Pretty"

Flip 10

If you are working on sums of 10, your kids will love this game! Students play in pairs a game similar to memory. Player 1 flips over 2 cards. If the sum = 10, they keep the cards. Whoever has the most combinations of 10 at the end wins! It's great practice to help get sums of 10 automatic.

I encouraged them to go beyond counting their fingers: "Try saying the biggest number and then counting on: 8....and 2 more.... 8.... 9, 10!"

Subtraction Stories

Last week we read Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar and made a class book. This week used the Five Little Monkeys to help us practice subtraction sentences.

First, we got out our individual whiteboards to write the subtraction sentences as we read Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree by Eileen Christelow

Then, we made our own stories!

Thanks Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten for the resources! (Click HERE to get your own FREE copy of the Five Little Monkeys subtraction story booklet.)

Each student created their own book featuring 3 different subtraction sentences.

Mr. Bones visited our class this week to teach us about our skeletons. He even brought X-rays of different people and animal bones! He was a hit!

Mr. Bones taught us that our bones: 1) Give us support, 2) Help us move, and 3) Protect important organs.

He even taught us 10 different bone names. (I laughed when a student said "Patella rhymes with Nutella!" Yes, yes it does!)

Click on the picture below to dance along to Dem Bones School Tube video.

These guided drawing skeleton paper dolls turned out adorable!