Fly on the Wall

Do you ever want to be a fly on the wall in the classroom and just observe while the kids work together?  Jill and I often find ourselves being a fly.  Just listening and observing while the kids work out problems, discover new ideas, and come up with solutions.  

We went outdoors to work on the final Joe the Ginkgo Tree project.  The class was randomly divided into 4 groups, each representing a season.  They were given the task of writing 2-3 sentences about Joe during their given season. Here is a snippet of what happened.

Workshop Rundown: 4/8

Once, there was a little seed. It grew and grew and became a big sunflower. Then, it began to wilt and dropped its seeds. Once again, there was a little seed...

We are learning about seeds and the cycle of seeds.  After reading Eric Carle's The Tiny Seed, the kids worked together to create a collage and write about a part of the sunflower seed cycle.

Writing together required a lot of concentration and thought.

The story is outside in the hallway.  We'll tell it to you soon.

Everyone made a "Smart Flower" to display on the SK bulletin board.  We've learned a lot this year!

Right outside our classroom, we can see the cherry and dogwood trees in bloom - so beautiful!  Everyone had fun making flowering trees with tissue paper.  I have fond memories using the eraser end of a pencil to create flowers with little squares of tissue paper and love to share this technique with the kids.

We are now working on the I Word Family.  The challenge was thinking of an additional real word for each Word Family.  Be sure to read this book with your child.

This week, we focused on the "CH" digraph with chewy chocolate chip cookies!  Yum!  After flipping over a paper cookie, the kids said the picture on the cookie and decided if the CH was at the beginning or end of the word.  Then, they wrote the word.  Everyone did a great job hearing and writing the CH sound.

Bonus - as they worked, they got to munch on some chewy chocolate chip cookies!

Eggcellent Experiments

 To kick off our unit about eggs, we had fun with "Eggcellent" experiments.

 Experiment #1:  Rubber Egg (also called a Naked Egg)

Find out what happens when you soak a raw egg in vinegar for a few days.  Ours broke open to reveal a yolk that felt like jelly.  Ewwwww!!!!

 Experiment #2:  Strong Egg

This was a favorite.  Hold a raw egg in your hand and squeeze from end to end as hard as you can.  It won't break!  Really, it won't!

 Experiment #3:   Egg in a Bottle

This one involves a peeled, hard boiled egg being sucked into a bottle.  How does it happen?!

 Experiment #4:  Spinning Egg

Just by spinning an egg, you can tell if it's hard boiled or raw.

 We recorded our findings in a little book.

Even Mr. Surberl stopped by to join in the fun.  He wanted to test the strength of eggs using the cone.  He cracked the egg!

I found several more "eggcellent" experiments here if you want to try them too.

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.

Butterfly Story

A butterfly just hatched out of it's chrysalis in our classroom! One of nature's miracles. Here is what we saw.

First it was a caterpillar eating parsley.

After it grew big, it got very still.

The caterpillar shed it's skin and a chrysalis appeared.

After two weeks, a butterfly emerged!

Observing the butterfly - it's an Eastern Black Swallowtail.

We let our butterfly out by the butterfly bush.  We watched until it flew away.

Butterfly artwork.

Butterfly journals.