Farm Animals and Super Science Experiments!

The students have been busy these past few weeks! During reading and Writers Workshop we learned all about farm animals. We watched short video clips showing what life on the farm is really like. We now know what animals give us, what sounds they make, what they eat, where they sleep, and all the farm chores. We took virtual trips to the farm following other kindergarten classes around the United States, and even took virtual trips to factories and learned how ice cream is made from milk and sugar. In science we finished our unit on measuring. We learned to measure using creative tools around the classroom and even learned how to measure liquids. In math we are enjoying traveling around the world on http://e-learningforkids.org/math_world.html. We are building skills while solving problems together. If you get a chance to visit River Bend, check out our books we wrote about the farm hanging up outside our classroom!

Solving math problems on e-learningforkids.org

One of our many virtual field trips to the farm

We learned how to measure liquids and solids during this science experiment. First we poured...

Next we mixed....

Then we squished....

Finally we have green homemade play-doh!

"Wow!!! It's squishy!"

Writing about the farm on the Magic Board during Literacy Centers

Completing a retelling of a book using the graphic organizer "First, Next, Then, Last."

Writing about farm animals and what they give us at the Writing Center

Completing a beginning sound sort in Word Study. After sorting, students choose a card and move their game piece to the corresponding beginning sound.

During Math Centers, these games build skills such as counting sets, greater than/less than, and adding. Students draw a card and answer the question. If they are right, they roll the dice and move their game piece. These developmentally appropriate games can be found at the "Teach Me Store" The "Mailbox" books of math games are our favorite!

Students conference in the Reading Nook during Writers Workshop. After conferencing, students add new ideas to their story before placing their story in the "Finished" pocket of their Writers Workshop folder.

Adding the final touches to his farm animal book!

During recess, groups that earn painting through exemplary work and behavior get the choice to stay inside and paint with Miss Voss on Fridays! This week we made handprint animal art!

Hands folded on work, materials in the middle, and quietly waiting for directions. That's what clean up looks like and sounds like!

Did you know that many people's foot is the same size as their forearm? We had a hard time bending our arms and legs to test this theory, so we measured out our foot lengths on a piece of string and marked 8 footlengths. Then we measured how many foot lengths tall we are, and how many foot lengths long our forearm, fist, and head is.

We brainstormed creative ways to measure using classroom objects. Group 1 decided to measure a table using tissue boxes. How creative!

Group 3 decided to measure their friend using blocks. We decided that it wasn't easy to measure tall things with blocks, because they fall down. Next time we are going to use a tape measurer like

 Group 2!

The results of our science experiment!

Happy St Patrick's Day! Students wrote stories of "How To Trap A Leprechaun." The green glasses and hat made us think like Leprechauns.