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Nov
12

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Pumpkin Science

Category: Kindergarten, Outdoor, Science 11 Comments

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Here are a few things we did with pumpkins this year…

Growing seeds inside a pumpkin! Cut open the top and fill with soil. Water and watch them grow, it really does work. Make sure the pumpkin gets A LOT of sun. I also made a few small cuts on the bottom for water to drain. You might notice there is a grasshopper in the picture. That is because we put one of the pumpkins inside our terrarium. We are very curious to see if he eats the leaves or not. I love the wonder and excitement the terrarium brings to my room. We also have crickets, worms, snails and beetles in there currently. Special thanks to my teammates Carole and Jen for letting me include a pic of their pumpkin. Crazy how many plants are growing in it!

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Giant pumpkin. We had a parent donate this 100 pound pumpkin! It was a prop for home living for several weeks and then we took it outside cut it open. We are also going to watch and see what happens to the pumpkin over time. Next year I am going to visit some of the pumpkin patches and stores to see if they would donate any leftover pumpkins for us to observe. All you need is a small patch of dirt or garden area.

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And of course the kids explored pumpkins themselves! Read more about that project here. 

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Oct
29

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Interactive Notebook: Beginning of the Year

Category: Interactive Notebook, Kindergarten, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies/History, Writing 2 Comments

Last year I started the interactive notebook mid year and it was a big success! If you want to know more about the interactive notebook please read about it here. I wanted to share how I started the notebook this year. Here are examples of the first entries…

We talk about balance and stability in the class meaning that it is a safe and fun environment for learning.

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My class only one rule. We talk about expectations and being brave.

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What is our mission in Kindergarten. The kids came up with their ideas and we worked together to create this video.

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Learning about the pledge. They were asked to draw a symbol of our country.

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Hand Washing System. The icons were mixed up on their side and they had to put them in the correct order.

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School Leaders

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Labeling the parts of a flashlight

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“Needs and wants” lesson

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Magnetic or Non-magnetic

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Realistic drawings

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Oil, water and honey experiment.

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When should we call 911?

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Bus safety

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Oct
18

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App for Documenting the Weather in the Class

Category: Apps, Digital Camera, Digital Citizenship, Global Classroom, Kindergarten, Science, Tech, Twitter 1 Comment

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I have written about how we use this app in my class to document and share our weather (see here) but I wanted to remind everyone about this great app and share the new options available. The one I am the most excited about (seen above) displays the weather on a thermometer with both Fahrenheit and Celsius. This is very valuable for us because we share our weather with classes around the world using Twitter. Other options I am excited about are shown below. The kids love helping to take the picture and keeping track of how the weather changes during the seasons.

** I always blur out the part of the image that shows our location using the Skitch app because I don’t like to share our exact location on twitter.

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Oct
16

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Wonder Journal: First Activity of the Day

Category: Art, Creativity, Interactive Notebook, Kindergarten, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies/History, Websites 13 Comments

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I started using a Wonder Journal each morning this year. When the kids walk into the room I have an image and a word written on the board (see below). They unpack and then grab their journal and start wondering. They can use words, pictures or both to document their thinking. After the tardy bell rings the kids leave their journal on the table and sit on the carpet for the school announcements. Then I let the kids share with me what they have been wondering. The questions/wonders they have been sharing are amazing and they lead to some great discussions. After sharing for a few minutes we then watch a video about the wonder. Most days the image and video comes from Wonderopolis. Each morning I check the Wonderopolis sight and use the “wonder of the day” or pick from this list of 50 great wonders. Wonderopolis even includes a wonder gallery of images for each one so I have everything I need in one place. I decided not to display the actual Wonderopolis website on the board when they walk in because I don’t want the kids limited in their wondering by reading the “wonder of the day.” Having only the image about the topic has worked best so far for me. After our discussion and watching the video the kids go back to their journal to wonder some more or document their learning. This also allows time for kids that don’t arrive before the bell to get something in their journal. I am very happy with this process so far. The kids are excited to walk in and see the wonder, unpack quickly to get started and are engaged and thinking first thing every morning.

Example of what I have on the screen as they arrive each day. This is from the polar bear wonder.

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This is the journal. It has 20 blank pages (completely blank) and paper binding. Anything simple would work for this

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Sample page from the Where is the fastest roller coaster wonder. His wonder was how do they go so fast. 

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Sample pages from “What is the Hottest Planet“ wonder…

“I wonder why the sun is so bright.” 

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“I wonder why this one has a red spot”

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Red arrow shows the “Wonder Gallery” where I find the images most days. 

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Sep
25

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Augmented Reality Space Flashcards: Fun With The Solar System

Category: Apps, iPad, Kindergarten, Science, Tech 1 Comment

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 Disclaimer: I was given a free code to try this app

AR flashcards has released a second app that is out of this world. I wrote about their first app AR Flashcards ABC here and they were very popular. The second app is works exactly the same way. You purchase the app ($0.99), download the flashcards, print the cards and let the fun begin.

Below is a video of what it looks like when you use the app. Touching the planet on the iPad will trigger the audio of the name and pressing the yellow “i” button gives the audio information of the planet. The camera icon takes a screen shot of the app and adds it to the camera roll. My favorite part of the app is the Solar System card (image above.) This card show the entire solar system and an approximation of the size of each planet to give the kids perspective. I am not a solar system expert but my only concern is that the sun seems smaller than it should be compared to the planets.

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Sep
21

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Exploring Pumpkins in Kindergarten

Category: Kindergarten, Science 12 Comments

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This is a repost from last year but I am excited to do something similar again this year. Please add ideas in the comments!

I bought three pumpkins to explore with my class. The last two weeks they have just been decorations in the room and I have joked with the kids that they were empty inside because when I would shake them there wasn’t any sound. This of course led to a lot of discussions as the kids tried to explain what was inside as well as come up with reasons why there wasn’t any sound. Today they finally got to prove me wrong when we opened the pumpkins. I decided to cut the pumpkins in half this year and it made a big difference. The kids were able to explore and access them much easier this way (pictures below)

Something else I did different was to fill one small pumpkin with soil and place it in one of our living centers (read about them here)  I got the pumpkin pot idea from pinterest here. Hopefully the seed will sprout! We also cut one small slice of a pumpkin to see what happens. So far we have only put a few orange slices in their so the class is not sure exactly what to expect.

We also watched a video (also from Pinterest)  about pumpkins you can find HERE

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