O is for Ocean and Octopus

We just wrapped up or second week of summer school! :) During the summer, we don't have school on Fridays so I try and make Thursdays fun days! This week, all of our activities revolved around the letter  O. 

During literacy time, we made "pudding oceans" and wrote a numbered list of how to make them. The kids LOVED making these and they are soooooo EASY to do! All you need is vanilla pudding cups, food coloring, a spoon, and some sort of "gummy fish".

First, we added blue food coloring to our vanilla pudding cups.

Next, we stirred like crazy!

Then, we added our little fish!

Looks really appetizing doesn't it? ;)  

Here is one of my sweet little guys writing. 

1. Open Pudding 

2. Make it blue

3. Stir

4. Add fish

5. Eat 

I am so proud of them and how far they have come this year!

In math, we created Octopus Pattern Hats. I pre-cut 8 strips of construction paper and 1 octopus "head" for each student.  Using bingo dotters, students created 8 different patterns on their paper "tentacles" and I stapled them to a sentence strip. Anytime they can wear their product, they think it is amazing (and I think it is adorable)!

During science, we created Oceans in a Bottle. For this, we used bottles of water, glitter, vegetable oil, foam sea creature stickers, and these weird little plastic beans I found in the art closet. Obviously, you can put whatever you want in there! 

 I let students drink some of the water (to make room for the oil) and added glitter with a funnel.

Then, students added food coloring, sea creatures, and the little beans. Although many students wanted to squirt as much food coloring as possible into their bottles, I found that if you only squirt 1 drop you can see everything in the bottle much better. 

Next, we made predictions about what would happen when we added the vegetable oil to the water and tested out our hypothesis. 

Finally, it was time for the kids favorite part....

SHHHAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKE!

And watch everything dance and swirl around until it all settles back to the way it started. 

It was a fun week and I can't wait to start on all of our "W" activities tomorrow!

Adventures in Spaaaaaace

This month the Amazing Ants have been studying outer space. Here is a peak at some of the things we have been up to this week:

I love to play catchy and educations songs for my kids about subjects we are studying. So, of course I was thrilled when one of the wonderful teacher's on my team introduced me to this "We are the Planets" rap by Storybots. It is SO GOOD! The kids absolutely love it! After I played it the first time they started chanting, "AGAIN! AGAIN!" haha

In the writing center, students practiced creating sentences using our high frequency (or popcorn) words along with space vocabulary. 

I guess he realized the 1st e was backwards and then self corrected for the rest of the e's! lol Smart little guy!

We also practiced name writing and creating patterns with these cute little "name rockets".

 

For dramatic play, I turned our doctor's office from last month into a rocket (using an entire roll of aluminum foil)!

Here students perform experiments,  

sit back and enjoy the view by looking out the "window,"

create a plan for when they land,

use the control panel to maneuver the space craft,

and record their observations

I found the observation log (above) and these  cute little signs (below) for FREE on Sparkle Box! If you have not checked out Sparkle box you definitely should! It is a great resource with tons of  educational freebies in every theme imaginable!

On "Science Friday" we learned more about the sun.

After reading several non-fiction books about space and the sun, we watched a Brainpop Jr. all about the sun.

Then, we filled out this graphic organizer with all of the new information we learned:

We also did a demonstration (found here) to show that the sun is not a rock or a big fire ball, but is instead made up of whirling, swirling, plasma.

We created this by mixing orange colored water with vegetable oil. I placed the finished product in our "rocket" and the kids LOOOOVE shaking that bottle up, watching the oil swirl around, and then settle back at the top. It is very calming (for both me and the kids!) and I they enjoy watching it swirl over and over again!

*I did let the students know that when we shake our model up and everything is swirling around, that is the only time is represents the sun. The plasma that makes up the real sun does not separate into layers like the liquids in our bottle after it has been standing still!*

We ended our week by rocking out to another great rap by Storybots!

"I'm So Hot," The Sun Rap

Now I am hoping to see lots of sun over this next week since it is our spring break! :) 

Oceans of fun!

I cannot believe that summer school is almost over already - I feel like it just started! Noooooot that I am complaining though ;) 

Here is a little rap up of what he have been up to:

In math we made these little "jelly fish" with numbered tentacles to practice making sets, number ID, counting, and number order   

My original plan was to only make them with the students who really needed practice in those areas but after the other kids saw them, they begged me to make them too! I put them in a workstation for those who could complete them independently. It cracks me up how some opted not to decorate them, some drew "jelly fish" faces, and others just drew pictures on them like rainbows or their family:

We also have been practicing patterning everyday in math. As a cute little way to show off our new pattern making skills, the kiddos made these "octopus hats."  They love them because, well, they love making ANY kind of hat and I love them because they get lots of practice creating 8 different patterns (not to mention they look adorable on!)

Science is usually one of my favorite parts of the day! I love teaching the kids about some of the amazing creatures that live in the ocean! To kick things off, we did a very simple sort of creatures that live in the ocean and ones that do not:

Then, we started narrowing in on some of our favorites. We have focused in on sharks, fish, and octopus so far. I haven't taken very many pictures but I did manage to snap a few of our octopus "experiment". I got the idea here and it was a huge hit with the kids :)

First, we made little "octopuses" using pony beads and pipe cleaners. The kids each got their own water bottle and dropped their octopus in. We made observations about how we could easily see them through the clear water. 

Then comes the fun part :) The kids took pipets and practiced squirting "ink" (aka food coloring) into the water until it became difficult to see the octopus. We discussed how many different types of octopuses use this as a way to escape from predators. 

During literacy this week we have been hitting rhyming HARD! Rhyming seems to be such a tricky thing for kids to fully understand. It always seems after hearing it/saying it/doing it 891749837932 times and not really getting it -

one day they wake up and they've got it! So here is to time 891749837933...

I try to incorporate as much rhyming stories/songs/text as possible. The more they hear it, the easier it is for them to understand. I taught them this little song and we circled the rhyming words with Wikistix. It's an oldie but a goodie :)

Then I gathered a few objects that were fairly easy to rhyme with (a shell, cat, ball, dog, fish, block, mug, man, and pig) and loaded them up into my "rhyming basket" 

Then, we passed around the rhyming basket as we said this adorable little chant form Grown Kinders: 

And the kids took turns picking an object and producing a word that rhymes with it.

We have also been watching this video on youtube EVERY.SINGLE.DAY!

I showed it to the kids the third day of summer school and they LOVED it! They ask if they can watch it every day (over and over and over again if I would let them)!

Next week we are focusing on alliteration. Only 7 more days with kids! 

Fairy Tale Science

Over the past few weeks, we have been reading many different fairy tales such The 3 Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears. When I found this experiment on Pinterest, I could not wait to try it with my class! 

In the story Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears, Papa Bear's porridge in the largest container was too hot, Mama Bears's porridge in the medium size container was too cold, and Baby Bears's porridge in the small container was just right (some where in between the other two temperatures). We decided to be "Mythbusters" and see if that's how the three bowls would actually cool down after about 15 minutes.

We used 3 different size glass bowls and water instead of porridge, although next time, I think I want to make oatmeal in the crockpot first thing in the morning and use that as the material we are testing is more like the story.

In the end, the largest bowl was the hottest, and the smallest bowl was the coolest. 

I even found a video on Discovery Education that is really meant for older grades but it explains all of the science behind why each container cools down at that rate. Even though the scientific principals were a little over the kids heads, I think it is good for them to hear. After watching the video (which you can find here) we discussed what we saw and I put the science behind the experiment in more "pre-k friendly" terms.

We also did a fun Jack and the Beanstalk science activity that was inspired by an activity I found here. 

The students planted their beans and created their own little castles for the beans to grow up towards. I wish I had taken more pictures because all of their little castles looked so cute and different! I wouldn't have even taken any pictures if Mrs. Lawton (shout out!) hadn't reminded me to take at least one during dismissal! 

This activity is great because not only did we talk about plants and their basic needs, but we were also able to discuss fact and fiction. We made a list of what happened to the magic beans in the story (they grew overnight, they reached  all the way to the sky) and what we predict will happen with our real beans. One kid asked why I didn't just get them magic beans, so I told him I couldn't because I didn't have a cow to trade them for! He was just like, "Oh yeah, okay." Haha man I love my kids!

I can't wait for our classroom beanstalk to grow so we can make more observations and finish comparing and contrasting our fact vs. fiction beanstalks!

Humpty Dumpty "Egg-speriment"

This week, the students performed a Humpty Dumpty Under Pressure (how strong is an egg) "Egg-speriment." We made a prediction as to how many hard back picture books we could stack on old Humpty before he cracked.   

 

Most students hypothesized that we could stack 10 books on Humpty before he cracked.

In the end, we were able to stack 13 before....

Poor Humpty Dumpty! I when I removed the books, I had one kid say, "Yup, we definitely wouldn't be able to put Humpty Dumpty together again. They were right..." I assume "they" are all the King's horses and all the King's men! Haha