November- part two Insects

We are continuing our work with spiders, but are also talking about insects.

We are singing the song from Dr. Jean "Head Thorax, Abdomen" in each of the grades. We use actions as well. We point to our own body parts as we sing the song. At the end of the song, we put up three fingers on each hand to represent the six legs on the insect.

In 2-5 grades are also learning another song to the tune of London Bridges. We read some very cool non-fiction books. We will be writing spider/insect facts as well.

Corn

We read the book Popcorn Science.

Elemetastics

A group of adults come to our school from a local college to do hands-on science activities with the students. They get name badges with their first names on, but their last name is an element.

k-1 did some color testing on brown and black markers. They also mixed colors together to get other colors.

4-5 grades made glasses with 3-D lenses.

2-3 grades tested how liquids reacted with other liquids. They tried water with vinegar- mixed well. Then water with oil. Finally, they got a saucer with milk on it. The teachers dropped a few drops of food coloring onto the plate. Then we gave them a q-tip with dish soap on it. The children placed the q-tips into the milk. We saw some very cool things happen. I have some photos and videos of what happened.

Nocturnal Animals

This week we will be learning about Nocturnal animals- those that work mostly at night and sleep during the day.

Books will be available for the student about nocturnal animals. We will read the book Stellaluna. The older children will do a Reader's Theater on the book Stellaluna.

We watched a PowerPoint about bats. We will label parts of the bat. I have enlarged a bat and laminated it so the children may write directly on the chart.

October- Magnets, Skeltons, Pumpkins, Spiders

Our themes in October:

Magnets

Skeletons & bones

Pumpkins & Gourds

Spiders

*******MAGNETS******

We used magnetic wands to see how many chips we could pick up.

We made plates with designs on them for the children to try and follow.

We had a sheet that the children had to cut out and put in order.

********Skeletons & Bones **********

Review songs

Put large skeleton in order

We made Q-Tip skeletons (pictures to follow)

*********Pumpkins & Gourds***********

K-1 we made pumpkin books.

Everyone explored the pumpkins and gourds. We came up with pumpkin and gourd words on a pumpkin chart. Then 2-5 grade children came up with questions to ask, the answers had to come from the chart. (Chart photo to follow)

I wrote down the questions on large index cards to use as an independent activity.

********SPIDERS**************

We are learning about spiders this week. as usual we have a variety of books available that are both fiction and non-fiction for the students to read.

One activity we had the students do was to pretend that they were spiders. I gave the students each 1/2 of a plate - this was their web. I gave them their insect (it was a sugar cube) then I gave them some venom (water) They used small spoons to put venom on the insect. When the insect (sugar cube) turned into a liquid, they used a straw to suck up the insect.

We also came up with spider themed words. The 2-5 graders had to come up with questions where the answers were on the spider chart.

September-Apples and Potatoes

In September we talked and learned about:

*All About Me

*Apples

*Germs

For our Germs unit, each grade got 4 slices of a potato.

1 slice everyone touched it

1 slice no one touched

1 slice we blew on

Each group did one different one:

1 rubbed on the table

1 rubbed it on the floor

1 rubbed it on the door handle

We made a chart of what we saw on the potato. I made a sheet with little hand lenses on it.

We also added to it what we think might happen.

******* APPLES************

We enlarged an apple (photo to come) the students had to label the parts of an apple.

We weighed things against an apple.

We listed things that used apples in them: apple pie, crisp. I made an overhead using apples. I will have to see if I can share that with you some how.