The Grouchy Kindergartners

 

As a part of our ladybug unit, we read Eric Carle's book The Grouchy Ladybug. We then discussed things that make us grouchy and practiced our best grouchy faces (I'm sure you've never seen these faces before :))

Wow! I don't want to make these kiddos made anytime soon!!! But you have to admit, even when they're grouchy, they're awfully cute!

Catching Up!

I apologize for not updating the blog lately! We have been so busy with our many learning adventures! Luckily, I did have my camera in hand for much of the time and I was able to document some of the fun we've been having!

Addie B. holds one of the tolerant chickens at Shelburne Farms!

Addy O. rides a tractor!

Stephanie milks a cow.

Waiting for their turn at the farm!

Kate and Stephanie brush the sheep.

Dylan holds a chicken at the farm.

Anderson shares about his trip to Africa.

Addie B. and Kate work on their Samburu necklaces.

Blake shows off his finished necklace.

As we near the end of the school year, many children are nearing the 100 star mark. When they hit that, they earn an awesome t-shirt as a keepsake! Congratulations to Dylan, Ella O., and Blake! I am sure I will have many more of these to give out in the next several days!!!

May the Force Be With You!

We spent the last few weeks as scientists engaged in an exploration of force and motion. We started our unit by thinking about what we already knew about this topic and adding these ideas to our schema chart. Students had some interesting ideas to offer and certainly had some basic underlying understandings about the topic, but they seemed very excited to delve in and learn even more!

Throughout the unit, we read many books and did investigations and experiments, including a "Surface Safari" (to investigate how friction impacts the movement of different objects), an experiment to examine the force of gravity, many activities looking at the idea of "push" and "pull," as well as an experiment called "Does It Slide or Roll?"

Above, we investigated how much force Kate needs to use to push a bin when Haysen is in it and when it is empty.

Students explore how friction impacts the motion of an object.

Above, Addie and Haysen experiment with whether objects roll or slide. 

Below are some of the books that we read during our unit:

 

 

As a culminating activity for this unit, I invited families to work together to create a "Shoe Box Car" to enter into our class derby. The goal of the derby was for the Shoe Box Car to move a cardboard building block as far as possible. I asked students to consider all that they had learned about force and motion when designing and building their car. I was blown away by how many families participated in this activity and by the impressive cars that were built! Students really seemed to understand the concept that their car needed to have some weight to it (to create a bigger force and push the block further). Honestly, even though we didn't present trophies or awards to the winner, all of these kiddos came in first in my book! Thank you to all of you for supporting your child's learning at home with this activity. Based on the level of engagement and enthusiasm they all exhibited during this unit, my guess is that they will remember the learning and activities for a long while! 

 

Students are already asking when we can be scientists again! Their excitement and enthusiasm for learning is contagious!