Sunday, February 28, 2016

Clay Animals, Science Fair & More!

Of course we had another busy week here in Kindergarten! We began working on our clay ocean animals as well as writing books with facts about them. Of course we shared our writing with our preschool reading buddies like always. We also had our science fair during and after school which the students really enjoyed! 

We discussed how we have become oceanographers throughout our ocean study! The students began making their clay ocean animals this week and they really enjoyed working on them! They have done such a great job and we can't wait to share them with you all!
Here is just a sneak peek on Layton's Angler Fish clay animal. On the left, is a picture of an Angler Fish and on the right is Layton's clay animal. He did such a great job and used the picture as a resource. All of the students did such a great job as well!
We have begun painting our clay animals as well. We will finish painting the rest of them this week!
We also had our science fair this week during as well as after school. The students had a great time exploring many different science concepts. Take a look at the different stations below. They worked on making tornados with bottles.
They explored whether different objects would sink or float in water. They were surprised that all of the wood objects floated, even the heavy wooden block!
 They also explored various musical instruments and used different ways to make sounds.
The students also explored whether various objects would slide or roll down a ramp as well as color mixing with paint in a baggie.
 They also explored magnets and figured out which objects attracted and which repelled the magnets.
We also smelled different objects and tried to figure out what what smell we were smelling.
We didn't always like the smell that we were smelling!
 They explored what it was like to have 'polar bear blubber' and how it keeps them warm.
The students also explored the human body and worked on assembling the organs correctly in the body.
 They also explored the shadows of various objects.
As well as sorted shells by shape.
 These 2 stations were only at the evening session so some students got to make slime and explore 'fizzy fun'.
  The students also enjoyed exploring worms!
 We worked on a sight word book about rhyming words. The words we focused on were pig, wing, big, and dig.
We have also been working on writing a book about our ocean animals. The students have been creating a diagram about their animal, writing about where it lives, and what it eats. Take a look at a few examples below.
We also worked on writing about a couple writing prompts. First we wrote about "If I lived in the ocean I would....". The students came up with some great answers and I enjoyed listening to their creative responses.
Then we wrote about "My favorite sea animal is...".  They also had to write about why they liked the animal as well.
 We shared our ocean writing and sight word books with our preschool reading buddies as usual. The students really enjoy sharing their work with their reading buddies!
Thanks for checking in this week. Come back next week to see what we are up to! 

Have a great week! 
Mrs. Brittany Garrabrant