November Learning

What's hoppining in the Kinderpond this month?

Nutrition, finishing up fall, Giving Thanks, and our five senses.


Here are some of the things we're going to use:


First Up:

Card Matching

I printed several sets and color coded them on the back to keep the same pieces together :)

Cube Rolls

I print only one in color.  I attach it to a Manila envelope.

I laminate the whole envelope.

Then I cut along the top where the opening is and 

this is where I put all of the copies I need.

I put one copy in with a HUGE yellow O across the whole page.

The O stands for original.

I "train the troops" to leave that in the copy bin, 

so I make copies of the sheet.

The yellow highlighter doesn't copy,

so it's a win!!

I print off the cube part in color too and

laminate it (sometimes)

and put it in a pocket cube.

It is easier if they are on cardstock 

so when they fall out of the cube, 

the kids can just pop them back in!

Colorful Turkeys

EZ Turkeys

Turkey Time

Turkey 2

Dominoes

So I color code these too. Before I laminate, I draw 3 lines on the back going up and down, so the back of each card gets a color.  So when they get mixed up, we can match the colors :)

NA Dominoes

Turkey Time Dominoes

Our Friends

I wrote some very cute, if I say so myself, senses guided reader books... and lost them when my computer crashed :( 

I have the hard copies, can you guess what is on my to-do list? 

Senses

This week we talked about our 5 senses. We learned the song 5 Senses by Dr. Jean.

To conclude our senses unit, I created a Spin-a-Sense game. I made a large chart and listed all of the senses on the chart. The children spin the spinner and must tell me something that uses that sense, but you may not repeat, that is why I write what they say on the chart. :)

The older children 2-5 grades were going to be labeling parts of the eye, ear, nose, and hand. I created a sheet for them to complete each day. We have models of the eye and ear for them to

look at 3-D. Due to limited time - we had Elementastics on Wednesday, we were unable to do this :(

We made riddles instead. The K-1 children looked at a photo and gave three clues. Then decided which sense it should go under. For example, there was a photo of pizza and although we use most of our senses, we decided that tasting would be the best.

The 2-5 graders had to write down their three clues to see if anyone could guess what they were describing.

There are small pieces of tape on the squares to hold the game pieces in place on my pocket chart.

We used this chart to list things that used only, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 senses. I had wanted the children to label which sense they used but I wasn't the one doing the activity :(

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.