The Teachers' Playground

Time 2021-11-09 22:07:32

Web Name: The Teachers' Playground

WebSite: http://www.teachingplayground.blogspot.com

ID:226927

Keywords:

The,Teachers,Playground,

Description:

keywords:
description:

The Teachers' Playground

where learning and fun collide

Friday, November 18, 2011 What is Science?At the beginning of kindergarten, we do a unit on science safety. The unit includes:
What is science?What is a scientist?What do scientist do?plus tons of hands on exploration.On the very first day, I always begin by charting what the children think science is. The answers vary greatly and provide me with some valuable information on where we need to head with the unit.

After we brainstorm what science is, the children draw pictures in their journals based on our conversation. Each picture is outlines in felt tipped pen and colored. We label the pictures with at least beginning sounds, but hopefully more.
The very next day, we review what science is and I pose another question... What is a scientist? Again, we chart our responses and the children draw a picture of themselves being their favorite kind of scientist. I encourage the children to add detail in the picture such asa tool the scientist might use.
The children dictate a sentence about what they are studying and I record it on their journals.

On the days following this introduction, we work on completing a booklet that explains many aspects of being a scientist.


The first page is an overview of what we will learn. It provides the children with factual information and a repetitive text that they will be able to read over and over again.
We begin by reading through the above text. The children highlight the sight word can. Wepractice the word in a vary ofways... writing with crayon on the table, tapping the letters as we orally spell the word, magnetic letters, etc.
TIP: Tennis balls erase crayon from most school tables.
Then, we reread for meaning. We discuss what each sentence might mean and make some predictions. This would be a great time to create a chart with the class predictions.
Finally, we draw a picture of ourselves wearing goggles. We discuss that science must experiment and learn in a safe environment and wear goggles is one way to do this.

The second page is about asking questions. We discuss what a question is and what kind of words begin a questions. We make a list of questions that a scientist might ask. Finally, we think about one thing we would really like to know about. I write each child's question at the top of the page and the child draws a picture to match the words.
I usually take this opportunity to go over the fact that when we write our pictures and words will match each other.

The third page is about how scientist explore. We usually create a bubble map with tools scientist use to explore. Then, the children choose a tool and something they could notice using the tool. I record what the noticed while exploring. The child will draw a picture of the tool and what they noticed.

The fourth page is about how scientist measure. We discuss what it means to measure and create a list of various tools you can use to measure. Some of these tools might have been included in the previous chart as well.
The children draw a picture of three measuring tools and write a label for each.
**I am not sure if you noticed in the pictures, but I have the children create a pattern out of the letters that make the sentence on each page. This allows me to assess patterning at the same time as getting in science standards.**Posted byONe PiNK FiSHat7:24 PM1 comment: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to PinterestLabels:science Sunday, October 9, 2011 Properties of Objects
A properties tells how something looks, sounds, taste, feels, or smells.

The children loved helping me fill in the missing sounds from our properties of objects chart.After filling in the chart and explaining each property, we began sorting.
Below are the sorting mats we used.








Below is the 4 square chart we completed at the end of the unit.

Posted byONe PiNK FiSHat6:37 PMNo comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to PinterestLabels:scienceA Leafy Science ExperimentWhat will happen when you add water to a leaf that has been colored red and yellow?

Why, you get orange of course.



Directions:Die cut leaves out of coffee filters. If your school does not have a die cut machine, simply cut with scissors.Have your children color the leaf with red and yellow marker.Next, they will use a water dropper to cover the leaf with water.Finally, bring the group back together to discuss your findings.Posted byONe PiNK FiSHat6:18 PMNo comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to PinterestLabels:color blending,fall,scienceProperties of LeavesThe kiddos loved going on a leaf walk to collect tons of fallen leaves. After we returned to class, we discussed which properties of leaves we would like to write about. The class decided to record the color, shape and size of their leaves.

We copied the sight words IT and IS. The rest of the sentence was sounded out and spelled phonetically. The entire class did a fantastic job.


It is green.It is big.It is shaped like a heart.It is brown.It is big.It is smooth.It is brown.It is small.It is hand shaped.Posted byONe PiNK FiSHat6:12 PMNo comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to PinterestLabels:fall,scienceLearning About CharactersWe have been learning about characters.A character is a person, animal or object come to life in a movie or book.

We have used several different methods to extend our learning:
character webs: all the things we know about the charactervenn diagrams: comparing similarities and difference between characterspredictions: predicting character actions thinking about why we like certain characters.Below, we wrote about our favorite character in the book, The Falling Leaves by Steve Metzger.


What I liked about my favorite yellow leaf was when the wind blew the leaf away.


I am drawing Red Oak. He falls in the mud.


Purple BeechI am Purple Beech because I like mud.Posted byONe PiNK FiSHat6:07 PMNo comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to PinterestLabels:characters,reading Older PostsHomeSubscribe to:Posts (Atom)Followers
Visit we teach
Purposeful PagesMeet MeLearning BlogsNature Study SitesTeaching BlogsSearch This BlogPast Postsaddition(2)all about me(1)alphabet(1)america(2)apples(1)art(2)beginning of school(5)book share(12)building(2)calendars(1)characters(1)classroom photos(1)color blending(2)comprehension(1)crafts(6)dice games(2)differences(1)earth day(2)easter(1)eggs/ birds(1)fairy tales(5)fall(6)family(3)fine motor(2)gardening(2)general(1)greater than and less than(1)halloween(1)heat energy(1)holidays(2)homemade fun(2)imaginative play(1)insects(2)july 4th(2)leaves(1)living and nonliving(2)math(16)may day(1)mental imaging(1)money(2)motion(1)name(2)nature(6)numbers(4)nursery rhymes(2)ocean(2)organization(2)outdoor learning(7)patterns(3)poems(2)problem solving(2)pumpkins(1)reading(12)research(4)rules(5)science(19)sequencing(2)shapes(4)sorting(2)spring(12)story elements(1)subtraction(1)summer(2)teacher appreciation(1)unplugged(2)verses(1)winter(1)writing(7)

TAGS:The Teachers Playground 

<<< Thank you for your visit >>>

Hot Websites