Matter and More!

TGIF!  As much as I love my kiddos, they wear me out!  I always seem to be tired by the end of the week, and today is no different.  Don't worry, I can stay awake long enough to fill you in on some of our activities.

As I mentioned in my last post, we are studying matter this week.  Yesterday the kids made matter books.  They had to cut the pages out and put them in order, then they had to glue the pictures to the correct page (solid, liquid, gas), finally they drew an item on each page.  They all did very well with this activity, but as an extra assessment we did this page today.

plane, juice, steam

a dog, milk, the teapot that has steam coming out

ball, puddle, air

I have gotten in the habit of having kids label their pictures.  They are still working on their fine motor skills and it is sometimes difficult to decipher their pictures.

There was a slight confusion on one paper, due to the word gasoline.  She thought that gas that you put in your car was a gas, which happens to be a very common mistake in kindergarten.  I felt bad telling her it was wrong because she spent so much time on her picture.

She was able to think of a new item for gas though, so she still got all of her answers right :)

If you are interested in using this assessment in your classroom, hop on over here to get the cute free version I made for you!

Okay, that is all I have for you today in regards to matter.  Now we are on to the "and More!" portion of the post ;)

The weather in San Francisco is great, especially when you hear about the rest of the country freezing!  However, this wonderful weather means that some of my students have never seen snow before, which is a sad thought.  Since we can't make real snowmen, we made some during art today instead.

First, I read Snowmen at Night--a cute book if you haven't read it before.

Then, the kids painted snowmen using Q-tips and corks to make dots of white paint.  After the white paint dried, they added other colors with a paintbrush.   I found this idea on Pinterest.  I can't give credit to one individual though because I saw several different pins using the same technique.

Please excuse the shadow of my arm, but I really wanted to use this picture because I have never seen a snowman with a cane.

Our little snowmen will be hung up on Monday to decorate the front hallway!  I figured it was time to take down the Christmas trees that are currently residing on that bulletin board.

Happy Friday everyone!  Now I am off to relax.  Planning can wait until tomorrow!