A Day in the Garden

Today the school librarian and helper decided it was that time of the year to start weeding out the garden. Our school is very lucky to have a beautiful outside courtyard in the middle of school that is full of areas to plant . The Kinders all brought in gloves from home and were all ready to go when it was time for our library special. 

 

When we got outside they were each handed a bag to collect dandelions in. They got straight to work ridding the gardens of the weeds. 

Here are a few snapshots of our time outside. It was such a beautiful day!

Dandelion Art

In the afternoon we picked out a piece of colored construction paper, dumped out our dandelions, and created an original piece of artwork. Once again, the students got very creative with this.

 

Some students chose to make a landscape picture while others created giant flowers out of their dandelions. One boy made a beautiful heart for his mother since Mother's Day is just around the corner!

 Some kiddos ended early so I showed them how to make flower head bands. This allowed for them to get some extra fine motor skill practice. They even helped me make one (those things can get tricky).

 We gathered around for a group shot with our new dandelion art work and jewelry before displaying it in the hall.

Dinosaur Descriptive Writing and Fossil Find!!!

I do not even know where to begin with how much fun this day was! I surprised the students by bringing in an entire bag of assorted dinosaurs. One by one I pulled them out of the bag and our class described them in detail. After all of the dinosaurs were set out on the table I allowed each one to come up and pick (they were chosen in order from their ranking in behavior cards). 

After selecting their dinosaur, the students sat down and examined them closely! 

Next we learned about the different parts of the dinosaur. I drew a dinosaur model on the board and labeled each part one by one. After we named the part each student found that part on their very own dinosaur (or observed that their dinosaur did not have that trait).

 The students learned about sloppy copies. They all went right to work drafting their couple sentences to tell about their dinosaurs. Some students stuck to simple describing sentences while others challenged themselves and went more in detail.

After students wrote their sloppy copy and had it checked and corrected by me they were given a new sheet to write their sentences on. Students took their time and wrote as neatly as possible! Their final task was to illustrate their picture.

 

The kiddos took their time making every detail perfect. They really enjoyed drawing their own dinosaur and got really creative with it. Many of their chose to label their dinosaur and used the board for some extra help. The final product was amazing and they were all very proud of theirs when we got to take them out and display them in the hall!!!

  

In the afternoon things got even more fun. I told the kiddos that if they worked hard I would have a surprise for them in the afternoon. They clearly deserved it after their amazing writing. I busted out my hardhat and told them all we were going to become certified paleontologists (can you tell I cant hide my own excitement for this project) and dig for dinosaur fossils. But before we could start we had to talk about how we would do this, and safety of course!

First, I passed out a paper towel and chocolate chip cookie to each student. They figured out that they were going to have to get the chocolate chips out of the cookie. I asked them how they were going to do this without damaging the "fossil."

They figured out that they would need some sort of tools. We talked about what tools real paleontologists might use and what tools we could use instead. Next, they got out magnifying glasses and inspected the "rocks" they would be digging into. This is were it really got fun!

We got to learn all about magnifying glasses and how they worked. Students explored and experimented by getting up close with the rocks they would be chipping into as well as other objects around the room. One student figured out how it would make their eye bigger! 

 Before you knew it the whole class was figuring out new and creative things to do with it. This was one of those moments that I just had to go with and opened a whole new lesson I was not expecting. They LOVED it!

I could not resist either!!!

Then it was off to work. Each student used their toothpick and magnifying glass to carefully dig into their cookie. Students soon realized how much of a challenge it was to excavate the chocolate chips with just a toothpick. They were not allowed to use their hands to pick up the cookie because we discussed how it would be impossible to hold up a giant rock in real life. 

While we worked on slowly getting the chocolate chip cookies the kiddos started to realize what "being patient" meant. Many of the kiddos told me they knew they did NOT ever want to dig up dinosaur bones because it took way too much time. I could barely stifle a laugh when they said this considering they had only been working for about 10 minutes! Some of the students however found this activity very calming and spent a great amount of time and detail getting every speck of cookie off. 

 This little paleontologist spent a great deal of time making sure every one of her "bones" was perfectly cleared. 

This kiddo kept her work area nice and neat!

At the end of the day these little "paleontologists" filled out a sheet recording how many "fossils" or "bones" they found in all. It was one fun and exciting day for everyone in my room and one of my favorite days so far this year!!!

Earth Day Art

Our class celebrated earth day by learning to appreciate nature. We discussed how art is all around us and how we can use items from nature to create original works of art. Recycling was another topic we tackled by trying to use the least amount of supplies throughout the day. I took the students outside to search for materials for their landscape picture.

 

Students searched through the area behind the school to look for natural supplies!

First, students placed their materials on their paper. After they decided they liked how it looked they glued them down! Last, they used crayons to add some extra detail.

 

The students had some wonderful ideas! Some used sticks to build houses, rocks and blades of grass to create the sun, and different flowers to make windows. They were all very creative and everyone made an original and natural piece of artwork!

 

RAWR Dinosaur

It is finally that time of year! This week has led us into one of my student's most loved topics, Dinosaurs. I have been taking every opportunity to teach and review skills this week while having their attention. First, we kicked off the week by reading the story "If the Dinosaurs Came Back." Since we have been talking about measurement in Math we measured a T-Rex foot. First we measured the length and width.    
 Next we discussed the giant area of the foot. Students made a prediction about how many kindergarten shoes we could fit in the area of the T-Rex foot.    
 We finally filled the entire T-Rex foot after using all 32 Kindergarten shoes and even 1 of my own!    
 We displayed the final product on our door!  

Insects

This past week we have been exploring the world of insects. Students were asked to bring in green plastic bottles to construct a lightning bug for our Friday fun project. First, we decorated all of the wings with patterns. Next we used 3 pipe cleaners (3 set of legs) to make all six of the legs by twisting them around the bottle. We decorated the cap to make the eyes using wiggle eyes. While the students were at their special I added glow sticks and covered all of the windows. The students came backs surprised to see their lightning bugs glowing in the dark! We sat around and learned fun facts about lightning bugs in the dark! What a fun day!