Weather or Not

We are working on an  air and weather unit in 2nd grade  this quarter. This is a great song to go along with our meteorology tools that we are making. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBfaAN_tWW4

Here is the sheet we will be working on as we build our vocabulary.

weather words

Rock On!

Our third graders are learning to become geologists in science this week. We have used our "mock" rocks to test our measurement skills, and ability to understand what properties rocks, minerals, and crystals have. We learned that the type of crystal Mrs. Heinrich added to the recipe was kosher salt. Now onto the hardness test. We are trying to determine how geologists also test minerals for hardness. We used our finger nail, a penny, and a paper clip to see which one of our minerals was the hardest. We are still trying to work on perfecting our ability to determine which mineral is harder than the other. Our I/E group will be starting a new book from Science A-Z on rocks, minerals, and soil. This is one site I found some fun activities to do for our block.

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/history/handsonhistory/dig_partners_english.pdf

I am also using these two sheets for my review on minerals and what geologists do.
Rock On Geologists

Bean There, Done That

We tried bean and kale soup during our Garden Club Wednesday meeting. Holy moly... all but one student tried soup that had 5 types of beans, squash, celery, and kale in it. Take a look at the graph we had to extend because they loved it! Awesome!!!!! We went out to pick the rest of our kale and the kiddos took it home to share. This garden stuff really does make kids try new things! I will include the recipe for you to try yourself. Be brave, friends, veggies are good for you!

 We used this book with the little ones. It shares the process of growing a bean from seed. We sent home baggies with a bean wrapped in a paper towel and a piece of masking tape to watch them grow.

We made a graph to show what we thought of bean and kale soup. I was surprised as to how many kiddos actually liked it and even tried it. Yea! Take a look at how excited the kids are about picking kale and bringing it home! A lot of the kale didn't even make it home, they ate it right away!

Five Senses In And Out Of The Garden

This week we are wrapping up our five senses unit with our kindergartners. I was trying to figure out a good way to get them outside for science. It still is pretty nice here in Wisconsin, although we did see our first frost in the courtyard and witnessed some frost burned leaves later on in the day, but that won't stop us from using the garden in any way we can. Here is what our little kiddos did in the garden this week.

Five Senses In An Out Of The Garden

We read this book to wrap up what we learned about our five senses. We also made a chart that helped up remember what our senses do. It is fun to see the kids really start to write and comprehend!

Paying Pickles Forward and More

Our garden has produced an amazing amount of vegetables. We have had an Open House, Open Garden picking which brought in over 200 people into our garden to reap the benefits of our planting. We also had a harvest gathering with over 145 people last week. We gathered vegetables and also ate together and had many presenters sharing garden cooking and more.

 What we want to teach our students is that it is great to get things, (picking veggies during club time, eating food that we make with harvested veggies...) but it is even better to give. We made pickles two weeks ago and now it is time to give to others. Our pickles are being given to our adult crossing guards and one jar is being given to our principal on Boss's Day on Wednesday. Our students in our Green Team Garden Club also picked a ton of cherry tomatoes as well. We made 22 bags of cherry tomatoes for our teachers. Here is the label that we used on the teacher bags. Our garden club enjoyed doing something nice for the teachers and others that help us grow.

Garden Thanks

 Our pickles we are paying forward. When we are in a pickle, we can always count on our crossing guards.

 We gathered a second harvest of dill. We are hanging it upside down so that we can use the dry dill to make dip this fall.

Some of our wonderful Green Team Garden Club with their new t-shirts!

Busy Weekend

Well, this is the first time I am just sharing a bit about my busy life. I have been trying to add posts that help you out, but this weekend, boy was it busy. After school on Friday I drove with one of my daugthers and my college daughter's boyfriends family(phew), to Mankato. My son and husband stayed back for my son's last football game. My son's team won and was undefeated this season. Proud mama, my buddy was the quarterback. My 16 year old daughter had a volleyball tournament, they are first in the conference now. Yea! It took us 6 hours, stopping for 20 minutes to eat. I was soooo tired, but it was worth the drive to see my oldest. I walked my first 5K for a cool t-shirt. We went bowling and even a bit of shopping. It sure is great to see your child after a few weeks, but I was wiped out, however we still had time on Sunday to set up for my almost 14 year old's birthday party. We are throwing a murder mystery party at Bubba's Bar. Should be fun stuff. I will post some other science help this week. Stay tuned.

Invertebrates and Symmetry

My school has created an Intervention and Enrichment block of time on our schedule, I/E allows me to work with 13 third graders in an enrichment class. I work with them in reading, writing, science, and math. Our first unit of study had us learning about invertebrates. I used Science A-Z to find a book that focused on this topic. We then used several graphic organizers to learn about non-fiction. We set up a science lesson testing Grow Gators. We tested to see if salt effects the growth rate of our animals. I found a cheaper version of the grow pets at the Dollar Store.We found that salt slows down the growth rate. We then went out to the garden after we learned about symmetry. We learned about rotation, transition, and reflection. We went to the garden to find examples of each type. We traced and even made rubbings. After that, we spent some time in the computer lab. I gave each group a type of invertebrate. They needed to find one picture of an invertebrate that showed rotation, transition, and reflection. We used the flip book to show what we learned typing together reading, writing, science, and math.

Symmetry Sheet