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Showing posts with label kindergarten. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kindergarten. Show all posts

Kindergarten Sun Protectors

We are learning about the weather in Kindergarten. This week, we discussed how we protect ourselves from weather.


Here in Wisconsin, we get tornadoes. We practice tornado drills. We practiced to remind ourselves why we take shelter. We talked about lightening and rain and how we protect ourselves. We then focused on the sun and the many ways we protect ourselves from getting too hot or sunburned. We read the EPIC Book...


Two major NGSS standards can be met with this activity in a simple science way!

K-PS3-1. Make observations to determine the effect of sunlight on Earth’s surface.

2. Use tools and materials to design and build a structure that will reduce the warming effect of sunlight on an area.

Here is what we did...We made sun protection for our Beanie Babies! I love their creativity! I set up the STEM Store at our supply table with the following:
*straws
*styrofoam cups and bowls (they are easy to poke a hole in)
*pipe cleaners
*milk cartons (easy to get at school)
*masking tape
*toilet paper and paper towel tubes (ask the janitor to save them for you...)
*Beanie Babies (I have small ones that McDonald's had...they work great!)
*I also put out a bucket of sand on blue paper so it looks like it is at the beach! They put their protectors in the sand then for the full effect!

STEM supplies at the STEM Store!


One of the many sun protectors that were made!

This is a fun and easy way to add non-fiction reading, NGSS standards, and a STEM project to your day!

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Sunny Days in Winter

My little kinder buddies are learning about Space in our next unit. It seems pretty far fetched for them to understand, but I think they kind of get it!

Let's pretend that our nose is your hometown. We use a big ball to represent the sun!

Next, we lean toward the sun and we check out where our nose is...Summer time in your hometown!

Now, we straighten up...Fall! Followed by leaning way back...Winter! Finally, Spring is straight up and down again!

We discuss the seasons and why it is cold now in Wisconsin. I let them figure it out by redoing our leaning in and out!

Now, we have to learn day and night! That sun is still in the middle of our circle. We jump our noses to the outside of the circle. Jumping is so much fun! Then we jump back to face the yellow ball! Day and night. We now add waking up...when we eat...when we go home...when we sleep. Again, they seem to get it!

I love EPIC books! I use their Sun book to project and read. We then add what we learned to our anchor chart!


Finally, our half hour finishes with a quick art project with chalk and a tissue and a sentence to trace...The sun is a star! Next week...we will connect the sun to the weather and seasons. NGSS standards for kindergarten focus on
We always wrap up with this fun video...


Keep warm my friends! It sure is nice when the sun peeks its way out of the clouds in winter in Wisconsin...
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Turkey and Billy Goat Science

 This week, we started to use my STEM Fall Into Thanksgiving Pack. We have finished up our first units for FOSS at many grade levels and it is sure fun to take a STEM break!

I love the way that the book Run, Turkey, Run! fits our STEM activity of making a maze. We used the story map to create scenery along the way...You could always use another turkey book's story line to help your engineers...

I start with a box from juice from our lunchroom. We grab colored paper, popsicle sticks, jenga blocks, and cubes that we have in our classroom along with  a marble for each maze. 

Here are some of their a-maze-ing turkey runs!
They loved working together as a team to create the runs and the scenery, but most of all to play with the maze!
What a great Fall STEM station!


Their teacher even had fun!


Looking for more STEM lessons and ideas? Grab my Thanksgiving pack that includes scarecrows, oak trees, Turkey hideout, along with other a-maze-ing challenges here... TPT STEM Fall Into Thanksgiving Pack .

In Kindergarten...we finished up another positional word STEM activity with the Three Billy Goats Gruff! There is a great version of this story to read on EPIC books that is a nice positive twist! It goes along well with the positive twist on Miss Muffet we use with the song on youtube!
This version is great...the troll doesn't want to "have them for dinner"...He wants to have them over for dinner!
  Take a look at the kindergarten bridges and puppets that they use to retell the story! Science and language arts can go hand in hand!
We work with retelling word cards...up...across...over...under...next to...

We draw and discuss what a bridge needs in order to get across...

We then let our kinders play with the puppets to reenact the story line!
I love to see them be creative and play and science can do that! 
STEM Three Billy Goats Gruff Pack
   Next week...boats to go under the bridge! They are very excited!

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Wiggling Worms

Worms are slimy! Worms are creepy! Worms are scary! All comments coming from my kinders as they see our opened worm bin for the first time. I usually let them look at the bin, then I grab a huge handful of castings and worms and then watch the kids and worms squirm! I find an egg to show them where the worm comes from, I share facts as we go, and then I find a baby worm for them to see that worms aren't insects going through a metamorphosis... they look the same as an adult...just smaller.

We always find a baby or two...I love it when they say, "Oh, how cute!"
Now, it's time to give each little a plate with a wet paper towel...a worm...hand lens...and a toothpick. I make sure they know they don't have to touch the worm, but I want them to look for...
The worm bin in action...two worms mating...a bit of a lesson!
Do you see eyes? Nose? Mouth? Ears? Segments? Front end and back end? Clitellum? Bristles? Something in the intestines? We talk about discoveries. What discoveries can they make? My favorite discovery is when they figure out worms aren't so bad!


Getting a closer look at worms!


By the time we are ready to share our discoveries...

They are all smiles!
Give them a cut out worm...have them write one thing they learned or discovered...and have them glue it to a picture of the grass and dirt...and you have a great lesson for kindergarteners. Take a look at the book we read along with it...
Great read to help our little wiggling worms pay attention:)

Need some lessons to make science simple? Here is my worm pack... Worm You Way Over To TPT to find it!

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What's A Slope Mrs. Heinrich?

The cutest thing, one of our kinders asked me this question yesterday. I looked down at her sweet face and said, "we are going to be scientists and conduct an experiment to find that out." She replied, "what's a experiment?"

We started our slope lesson asking if they ever went sledding. Duh, we live in Wisconsin and have a hill at our school. Vocabulary word number one, slope. Now to the experiment part... we are going to set up an experiment to find out if a big slope or hill makes us go faster or does a small hill make us go faster? We made a prediction. Look at all that vocabulary. I had our kiddos get a car to place on our graph. Then we went to set up our experiment.

We set up two slopes a big one and a little one. Then we raced our cars down the hills. We shared our findings to see if our predictions were correct. We then filled out a sheet to share our conclusions and findings. There pictures show it all...they got it. Before my kinders

left, I asked the class, "what is a slope?" "Moving on a slant!" "A hill!" Well then kids, what is an experiment? "A test!" Cool beans, when kindergartners "get it"!


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Pushing And Pulling Our Kindergartners

So, as we continue to develop our unit on push and pull, I am helping set up two different activities for you. The first one is an extension for push and pull. I read (paraphrased) the book Push and Pull... and then showed them different pictures that helped them understand the difference between the two types of motions. We modeled pushing and pulling and that sometimes it is both a push and a pull. We defined a push as a force that moves something away and a pull is a force that brings something closer. We did a Venne Diagram with pictures I included for you to use. We then went outside for a few minutes...brrrrr it was cold. We practiced pushing and pulling on the swings, slide, and Rocking Boat. We went back in to practice being on a row boat. We pushed and pulled our oars in our boat as we sat on the floor. Another great resource for push and pull ideas are from a fellow blogger at Chalk Talk.

push and pull cards Used in the Venne Diagram. Are we pushing, pulling or both.


               Our little rowers. Push the oars, pull the oars, push the oars, pull the oars...

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