Exploring Rainforests and Grasslands

Biome or habitat?  I had been calling the rainforest, grassland, desert, etc. habitats, however when I looked for activities on these locations, I found quite a few people calling them biomes. Now, you may be wondering, much like I did. . .what is the difference?  Which is correct?  I don't want to teach my kiddos the wrong information!

Well, if you are curious, here are the definitions per the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
habitat (n): the place or type of place where a plant or animal naturally or normally lives or grows
biome (n): a major ecological community type (as tropical rain forest, grassland, or desert)
So basically, I was wrong.  No worries, starting this year, I will call them biomes, and pray that my mistake did not adversely affect any of my previous students.

Now that we know what they are called, let's see what I put together to study them!  We have only covered the rainforest and grassland so far.  We will be learning about the desert next week.

The rainforest is always one of the favorites as far as kiddos are concerned.  I prepared my room by sprucing up my classroom with a tree.  This has two benefits, it keeps my kiddos from hanging on the pole and it helps them remember the layers of the rainforest.

I checked some rainforest books out from the library, as well as a few CDs.

The kids enjoyed listening to the music and they loved looking at the pictures in the nonfiction animal books!  Sorry I didn't take a picture of the books!

I also found some activities to use during centers to reinforce the rainforest theme.  They practiced sorting syllables in the Pocket Chart Center.  This free activity is from Happily Ever After Education.

In the Writing Center they wrote informational pieces in their notebooks.  I added a sheet of rainforest words to the center to help them with brainstorming and spelling.  Thanks to Sally LeTendre for the word list!

I thought this one was hilarious!

"Light snakes are poisonous.  They say stay away I am poisonous.  Leopards are fast.  They have polkadots.  Sloths move very slowly like grandmas."

"I know that leopards can run very fast fast fast."

In the Poetry Center they highlighted word wall words in a jaguar poem and did an illustration.  They also completed a jaguar craft.  They traced the pieces and used the picture to decide how to glue it together.  Thanks Holly K for the template and poem!

In writing, they came up with clues about a rainforest animal.  They wrote clues on one paper and drew their animal on a second paper.  After they were finished the kiddos got to read their clues and have their classmates guess the animal.  

This week we moved on to the grasslands.  We focused on the African Savanna.  Instead of a jaguar craft, they made a paper plate zebra.

I checked some more books out from the library.  My students love bringing in books from home when we have a theme.  This was a great one to share with the class because it teaches you how to count to ten in Swahili!

After reading the elephant book, we followed up with informational writing about elephants.  I put the book up in front of the classroom for reference for the illustration.  The kids drew wonderful elephants!

"An elephant has big ears.  It uses them to fan her baby.  A elephant has tusks.  They are teeth."

They also got to make a sticker safari picture, which we followed up with more writing of course.  They are becoming such fabulous writers.  I am so proud of my little ones!  This was only after 15 minutes of writing.  We continued working on it the next day, and this little kindergartener filled up the front and back of her paper!

At the end of the week we made a chart to show what we know about each biome.  We will add to this chart when we learn about the desert and other biomes.

Come on back to see what we do with deserts!

A pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

I promised rainbows, so here I am!  We did the following experiment last week to wrap up St. Patrick's Day.

A former colleague passed this along to me when I was teaching in Kentucky.  All you need is a bowl, milk, food coloring, and dish soap.  When I had a document camera in my classroom I did this under the camera and projected it for all of the kids to see.  My class is small now, and we do not have that kind of fancy technology, so they just stood around my desk to watch.

I forgot to take pictures of the actual process, but here are some of the different stages after all of the ingredients were added.

As you can see, the colors begin to mix and form a rainbow.  The longer you let it sit, the more the rainbow forms.  I should have started mine a little earlier in the day.  The school day ended before we could see all of the colors.  You need quite a bit of time to let them fully incorporate.  Mine sat for three hours.   I would recommend starting this project at the beginning of the school day for the full effect.

While the rainbow was forming, we did a little writing.  The kids did a little writing craftivity that was passed on to me by a colleague.  They wrote about the things that make them lucky.  Some of them were really cute.

"I am lucky because. . . I know how to ride a bike.  I have a awesome school that is named Hillwood.  My mom found a 4 leaf clover."

"I am lucky because. . . I have the best teacher.  I have the best dog.  I have a good sister."

"I am lucky because. . . I have a jumpy house.  I have friends.  I have a school and a teacher."

I found it amusing that she has the "best" teacher and "best" dog, but only a "good" sister :)  Haha.  

We finished St. Patrick's Day last week, and now we are moving on to the rainforest!  

St. Patrick's Day with My Little Leprechauns!

I hope you had a festive St. Patrick's Day!  My kiddos were so excited yesterday.  One of them came to school decked out with green glasses and leprechaun hat antennae, carrying a pot of gold, stickers, and books!  She let me use her pot of gold (chocolate coins) as rewards for the kids throughout the day!  She read one of her books to the class and I read the other.

We did a few festive activities yesterday, and we will be doing a few more each day this week.  I will break it down for you by content area.

First off, we have math.  My kindergarten kiddos are working on 3 digit addition (no regrouping yet).  To make it a little more fun, I put the problems on a themed paper.

Last week we learned how to find missing addends.  As a review, I made some themed math games for them to play when they finish their papers.

I found this one on abcteach.com, but it was several years ago.  I wrote the problems on it with a wet erase marker, so I can change it out for many different skills.  They roll a die and move that many spaces.  In order to stay on their space they have to find the missing addend.

This game is from Teresa Evans at teachersnotebook.com.  The kiddos roll a die.   They figure out what they have to add to their number to make 10, and then move to that number on the board.  For example: I roll a 6.  6+4=10, so I move to the number 4.

We are making words this week in phonics.  I found some great worksheets that have the letters for the kids to cut out and everything!  So much easier than sorting letters for a making words activity.  They have time to come up with words on their own and then we work together to make more.  Thanks to Christina DeCarbo for this great activity!

In literacy centers this week they have some themed activities as well.  My firsties are working on even/odd numbers, so they have a number sort in the math center.

In poetry center, they always have a poem to add to their notebooks, highlight the word wall words, and illustrate (and of course read over and over again).  This week it was a poem from a leprechaun.

In the listening center they are doing a March book report.  This could also be used for the read to self center.  Thanks to Faith Wheeler for this freebie!

In the spelling center they are rainbow writing their spelling words, because we all know that you find a leprechaun's pot of gold at the end of a rainbow!

For writing this week, they are responding to prompts, as well as working with graphic organizers. Yesterday they wrote about what they would do if they found a leprechaun's pot of gold.  Several of them said they would share it, which I thought was sweet.

"If I had a leprechaun pot of gold I would give it to my friends whenever I sended letters."

"I would catch a leprechaun and get the pot of gold and give some to my sister and keep the rest of it on my shelf."

Tomorrow we are writing about the things that make us feel lucky.  We will also be filling in bubble maps this week to show what we learned about rainbows and leprechauns.  

We will wrap up the week with a little science and do a rainbow experiment.  Using milk, dish soap, and food coloring we will create a rainbow in the classroom.  I will post a picture after we try it so you can see how it works.  Come back to check it out!

Days of Dr. Seuss

For those of you who love Dr. Seuss, I am sorry to say, you missed his birthday.  Yes, Dr. Seuss aka Theodor Seuss Geisel, passed away in 1991, but he was so fantabulous that he should still be celebrated and remembered.  What better day than his birthday, March 2nd?!  Well, I guess March 3rd will have to do because I am certainly not going to school on a Sunday!

We have been doing little Dr. Seuss themed activities here and there all week.  I thought I would share a few with you in case you want to celebrate too!

First off, we read The Cat in the Hat.  I was amazed how much my kids still love this book, even though they can almost recite it word for word!  To review the at family we made "at hats."  There are so many different ways you can do this.  I had a printable of the hat and the kiddos wrote an at word on each stripe.  You could also make actual hats and have them write the words on their hat.  Some years I get motivated to make hats, but this year was not one of those years.  One year I even made a cake!

I stuck more to the themed centers and phonics this week instead.  We read Green Eggs and Ham and brainstormed "gr" words.

Here is some of the fun stuff they did at learning centers this week.

In the writing center, they wrote about what they would do if they had to stay inside on a rainy day like in The Cat in the Hat.  I hung the raindrops on our window to water our flowers :)

In the pocket chart center they have been practicing putting words in alphabetical order.  There are 4 sets of cards to choose from.  I got this great activity from Anita Bremer.

In word work center they got to make books!  I have had this template forever, so I have no idea where it came from (SORRY!).  It is a great way for them to work on word families and to see how changing a letter can make a new word.

In math center they reviewed adding using objects.  They rolled to find out how many of each color fish and then wrote the corresponding number sentence.  The number sentence sheet is just a piece of paper put in one of the pouches.  These are great for games because dry erase marker wipes off easy peasy and you can change out the papers anytime!  You can hop on over to Mama Miss to get this great freebie!

Tomorrow we are going to graph our favorite Dr. Seuss books.  Which one is your favorite?  Leave a comment and let me know!

Until next time. . .

You're off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting,

So. . . get on your way!

--Dr. Seuss

One Hundred Days of School, Oh My!

The Hundredth Day of School has come and gone and I forgot to post about it!  Cut me a little slack, it was only a week ago.

My kiddos started a countdown once we got to the 80s.  Everyday during calendar someone would excitedly announce, "We are almost to 100!!"  The day finally came, so a celebration was in order.

If you have a career that does not involve children, you may not understand the relevance of the 100th day.  My husband is one such individual.  When I told him about our celebration he asked, "Why do you celebrate being in school for 100 days?"  At that point I realized, I didn't have a good answer for him.  There really is nothing different that occurs on the 100th day.  Your students don't magically mature or turn into little angels.  I guess it is a day to celebrate the fact that the teachers and students have survived 100 days of school together and are still in one piece and relatively sane.  Now, if a kid asks me that same question, I tell them, "We are celebrating because you are 100 days smarter!"

Here are a few of the things we did to celebrate/work with the number 100.

We made 100 Day crowns!  This project had several aspects.  First I gave them a 100 that was divided into ten sections.  They had to draw ten dots in each section, thus making 100 dots.  Next, they picked up 10 different colored strips of paper (previously cut my me and laid out nicely in piles on the table for quick and easy pickup).  They drew ten of an object on each strip.  Each colored strip had to have a different design.  Once again, ten strips+ten pictures on each=100 (So I guess technically once we put it all together it was a 200 crown, but they didn't notice.)

They glued the 100 to a strip of paper and then added their ten colorful strips as well.  I stapled all the strips together at the top to make the finished product.  They loved making them and wearing them, and they got lots of practice counting in the process!  The crowns made them look pretty silly, especially considering it was also Pajama Day!  It was a very colorful day!

For phonics, we worked on building words from the letters in "one hundred".  I found this great freebie from Primary Reading Party.

They cut the letters out and recorded the words they came up with.  Some of them needed a little help, so I suggested words and they spelled them.

If you can get your hands on the book, Centipede's 100 Shoes, then you should try out this activity.

The kiddos practice counting by 1s and 2s, and they review patterns as well.  Reading, math, and science activities all rolled into one (suggestions can be found at the link above).

For writing, I gave each student a $100 bill.  An enlarged paper version of course!  They colored them green.

I stapled a blank paper to it to create a book, but if you want to save trees, I have had them write on the back before and it works just as well.  They wrote about what they would do if I gave them a real $100 bill.  Some of their ideas were very sweet, others were amusing :)

"If I had a 100 dollar bill I would give it to a poor person."

"If I had a dollar bill I would keep it forever because it is so special to me."

"I would buy a toy like a Nerf gun because I could do target practice."

I had also planned to make super cute cupcakes with my kiddos, but we ran out of time :(  I even typed up the recipe sheet and cut the paper strips.  This great idea came from Kinder Cakes.

Hey, now I have a fun activity already prepped for next year!  I am way ahead of the game!  If you want to go ahead and prep for your 100th Day, snag some of these ideas!  Leave me a comment if you want the 100 Day Cupcake Recipe sheet!

On another note, I am so proud of my kiddos!  They have been raising money all month for Pennies for Patients (for Leukemia).  With only 10 students in my class, they raised a total of $190!

Meet our Mascot!

I would like for you to meet Nicole, our class mascot.  Yes, I know Nicole seems like an odd name for a stuffed pink bear, but I was not the one who did the naming.

We had a "Name the Mascot" contest back in December.  My kiddos earned tickets for having perfect papers.  They had been rushing through their work, and this was something that got them to slow down and do their best.  I drew a name at the end of the week and that student got to name the mascot.  She named it after her sister, Nicole.  I wasn't about to tell her to pick a different name, so Nicole it is! The kiddos all still call it "the mascot" though, so I guess Nicole didn't really stick.

You may be wondering why we have a mascot.  At the beginning of each year I introduce our mascot and mascot journal.  At the end of each day I choose a kiddo to take the mascot home for the night.  They write in the mascot journal to tell about the experience and then read it to the class the next day.  At the beginning of the year the parents are allowed to help with the writing since kinders may be learning letters and sounds still.

They LOVE taking the mascot home and I LOVE that that they are working on their writing!  It is a win, win!

It is amazing to see how their writing improves throughout the year!  These are two writing samples from the same student.  One in the fall, and the other from this month.  Look at the difference!

Some of the kids even make clothes or furniture for the mascot and take photos to add to the journal.  They can be very creative!  The mascot even had breakfast in bed :)

If you are looking for a way to get your kiddos excited about writing, this is an idea to try.  Just make sure you set some ground rules before sending him/her home.  Our mascot is only allowed to pretend swim, bathe or eat food.  So far this has kept her clean.  The kids know that if they destroy her then nobody will get to take her home anymore.

She doesn't go home on Fridays.  I don't want to deal with the "NO FAIR!" complaints that would certainly come, but I tell the kids it is because they wear her out during the week and she needs to take the weekend off to rest.  Speaking of Fridays, only one more day to go this week and then I get to take the weekend off to rest too!