Workshop Rundown: 1/28

 This week we worked on the short U sound.  As in umbrella or duck or stuck.  After reading the very silly and clever book Stuck about a boy who throws all sorts of funny things from a shoe to a whale up in a tree to get his kite out of a tree, we retold the story using short U words.  During Workshops, the kids made their own trees that were filled with all sorts of short U words that had gotten stuck.

 What would you do with $100?  The kids got to write about what they would do using a $100 bill with their face on it!  The answers were all over the place.  Some bought servants, others gave the money to others, and a one bought some cute cowgirl boots!

Everyone read the new take-home book Hat, and made new HFW flashcards did and for.  Then, they wrote a "polar bear" conversation between a mother and cub.  Many of our little polar bears were hungry and there was lots of sweet "I love yous!"  too!

 What would it be like to live to be 100 years old?  What would you do, wear, look like?  We explored this by creating a 100 year old self portrait and writing about what we would do.  As you can imagine, there was lots of gray hair and canes.  Most kids wrote about playing with grandchildren.  So sweet!

To continue our Arctic study, the kids made Life Cycle of a Penguin wheels to illustrate how a penguin goes from egg to chick to penguin.

Fun at the Pink Palace

Our field trip to the Pink Palace was a wonderful adventure.  Not only did we have fun, but we had the opportunity to experience first-hand so much of what we had talked about in class about the polar regions.  The kids were able to make connections between what we talked about in class and the information given during our Discovery Lab class.  I was impressed with their knowledge and levels of questions. 

First, we learned a lot about how scientists survive in the Arctic regions.

This shoe is almost as big as Will!

Trying on a heavy coat.

Thomas, those aren't boxing gloves, they are super warm mittens!

Experiencing "white out conditions" in Antarctica.  The kids used a rope to find their way home.

The best part, though, was learning about the Arctic animals.  We had the opportunity to touch many furs and see some actual bones and teeth of Arctic animals.

These Arctic hare furs really are as soft as we imaged them to be!

Petting an Arctic wolf!

A real penguin egg.

We examined a tiny penguin feather.

This tooth once belonged to an Orca Whale.

Passing around the pelts.  The kids talked about the differences in the animal's size, softness, and color of coats.

Once our Discovery Lab was over, we explored the museum.

Umm...I think that owl just blinked.

Learning about the lifecycles of bugs.

Blubbery

As part of our Arctic Animal unit, we made little polar bears to talk about blubber and how the animals keep warm.

To get started, we explored the concept of blubber with the famous blubber glove.   Instantly, the kids understood the purpose of blubber.

Then, we created these cute little polar bears covered with blubber and fur.  I created a simple black line of a polar bear using clip art.  The kids cut out the bear and laid it on a craft mat.

First, a thick layer of blubber was painted on. The blubber is actually plain old white school glue.  The kids loved painting it on and talked about how thick their "blubber" was.

Next, a fluffy layer of fur was added.  We used batting as the fur but stuffing and cotton balls would also work.

A button eye and felt nose were added using the blubber glue.  This touch gave each bear its own personality.

Once dry (they did take a day to dry due to all the blubber!), the class worked together to make a super cute bulletin board with icebergs in the Arctic Sea.