more gigantic!

We have been preparing for our trip to OMSI by looking at different dinosaurs. Plant eaters and meat eaters.

One book gave us a really great understanding of the size of dinosaurs, GIGANTIC! by Patrick O'Brien.

This book compares the size of dinosaurs to that of everyday objects, such as cars and buses.

GIGANTIC!

Today your children were wonderful mathematicians and they managed to recreate a Brontosaurus outline on the playground blacktop.

Today was a very interesting day in Kindergarten. Your children learned about two very important topics: EASTER and DINOSAURS!!!

What do they have in common?

EGGS!!!

Getting geared up for OMSI

The countdown is on. Soon we will be taking a field trip to OMSI! To see the dinosaur exhibit. So we are studying everything about dinosaurs. So far we have learned about tyrannosaurus rex and triceratops.

Next we will be learning more about different types of dinosaurs.

We are going to investigate what they eat and their size.

Making Eggs from Scratch

WOW! Today we had an amazing time creating paper mache eggs. With a lot of help from our big buddies we managed to make seven gigantic eggs!
When our big buddies arrived in class today we went straight to work dipping paper towels into a flour/plaster of Paris mixture. We spread the wet paper towel over big balloons to create the eggs. They are drying in class and as soon as they are dry we can move on to the next step, painting them!
Maybe dinosaurs will hatch from them? It was really messy and really fun.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Kindergartners and their big buddies came together today to help celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday! As part of National Read Across America week people young learners across America celebrated their love of books! Pay a visit to Seuss Ville and check out which Dr. Seuss books your child has read.

Right before our eyes!

Today was a very busy day.

When we arrived at school there were four chicks: two black and two yellow. We anticipated that the chick who hatched first would change color but in fact it stayed the dark color!




We put on our lab coats and worked with our partners to discover what animal eggs were hidden in the buckets. Your children were able to identify: ostrich, turtle, snail, duck, and dogfish eggs. They are so good at investigating.

The most beautiful thing happened right before lunch. A chick hatched right before our very eyes!

The time has come, the time is now!

Wow! This is so exciting!

Our chicks have started to hatch. This morning when we arrived at school one chick had already pecked it's way out of it's shell. The chick had spent about an hour pushing and peeping it's way out of the shell. Then exhausted the chick took a nap.

Your children made some great observations about the chick. They noticed that he was brown and not yellow. They also noticed that it was wet. Like the great scientists they are, they speculated that as it dried it would become yellow.

When are the chicks going to hatch?

This is a question that has been on all of our minds. Your children have shown such patience waiting for the chicks to hatch. According to our chicken calendars the chicks should hatch March 4th.

A really good site to investigate how chicks hatch is at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry website.

Once the chicks have hatched your children will be creating a classroom story about the chicks' adventures in the classroom. I can hardly, wait!

BIG BUDDY RESEARCH

Welcome Young Biologists!

Animal Trading Card Project


Congratulations! You and your big buddy have been chosen as the newest members of our research team. Our research team is trying to figure out which animals lay eggs! We will be researching the following animals: amphibians, birds, crustaceans, fish, insects, mammals, and reptiles.


You and your big buddy will choose a card. Each card relates to a animal group.
You and you big buddy will research a specific animal. You will use the information you find to make trading cards about the animals.

Look at the animals from the different groups: Tree frogs, Chickens, Crabs, Guppies, Slugs, Dolphins, Snakes, Toads, Ducks, Lobsters, Goldfish, Snails, Pigs, Turtles, Salamander, Robins, Crayfish, Trout, Grasshoppers, Horses, Lizards

Ctrl+Click the animals to go direct to the site or use one of the resources below-

Resources:
WIKIPEDIA
YAHOO KIDS
Discovery for kids


Created By Ms. Gretchen Rowland 2008-02-17

As we dream

Our writing unit today focused on things that happen simultaneously, or at the same time. I introduced the topic by discussing what happened in my house while I was dreaming. I shared that while I was dreaming, of sculpting ice cream, my cat was playing with a pencil, my rabbit was ringing his bell, and the fish aquarium was gurgling. Then we read a wonderful story called, The Goldfish Yawned, by Elizabeth Sayles. http://www.elizabethsayles.blogspot.com/

The Anatomy of Eggs

Today we continued our focus on eggs. Your children took another look at the book An Egg is Quiet, but today we focused on the anatomy of the egg. We identified parts of the egg: the yolk, albumen, shell, airsack, and protein cord. Your children identified the shapes they saw within eggs: ovals, circles, squiggles and crescents. They were able to create beautiful egg anatomy collages using these shapes and contrasting colors. If you get a chance you can show your children what happens when we boil eggs to different temperatures. Here is a link to an interesting website on chemistry and cooking-http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/eggs/eggcomposition.html

An Egg Is Quiet

This week your children have learned many things about eggs. They have learned that eggs come in many shapes and sizes. They have learned that many animals hatch from eggs including: slugs, snails, crabs, chickens, snakes, fish and even dinosaurs.

Your children are hatching chicks in our classroom too! The chicks should hatch in twenty-one days.

Please check out the incubator when you come in the class.

We love our Big Buddies!!!

Let me tell you why Wednesday is our favorite day of the week! Wednesday is the day that big buddies come down to spend a few minutes with us. We love our Big Buddies!!! Today, our big buddies joined us in the computer lab and we did some real research about the animals we have studied: slugs, snails, crabs, and chicks. Our big buddies were great. They helped us find the most interesting pictures of these animals. Near our book rack you will see photos of us working with our big buddies. Please come take a look!

Taming the Dragon

Today we read a charming story of a brave little mouse named Chopsticks who is able to set free a wooden dragon. Your children traced their hands and created scales for our own dragon which is hanging up in the classroom.

The Kindy kids beckon spring!

As January, comes to a close we learned that not every culture celebrates New Year's on the same day.

Today, we looked at different New Year's Celebration: Chinese New Year. We read the story The Magic Paintbrush, by Julia Donaldson and then we created magic paintings!

Using ink, straws, glue and glitter your children created beautiful pussy willows branches and even placed them in vases to beckon the Chinese New Year a celebration of the beginning of Spring. Please be sure to look at your child's art work in the display case of the main hallway!

A house for Hermit Crab

Today was a fascinating day! Your children collected and organized sea shells they found in the sand. We did not even go to the beach, the beach came to us!

We talked about the types of animals that live in shells and discovered that hermit crabs live in shells too! We read Eric Carle's story, A house for Hermit Crab, the story of a hermit crab who spends all year decorating his shell only to find out that he has out grown it! Your children discovered that hermit crabs really do move out of the shells when our hermit crab Smiley moved into his new shell this morning.

Eric Carle has a wonderful website http://www.eric-carle.com/ you should visit it when you get a chance.

Our big buddies came in this afternoon and helped us find out facts about hermit crabs and sea life. We have so much fun when our big buddies come down to see us!

Please say hi to Smiley and Soccerball, our new classroom friends the next time you come into visit.

What is a scientist?

This week your children have been learning that scientists are not men in stuffy lab coats, but that there is a scientist in every one of us!

We started the off by reading one of my favorite authors Julia Donaldson. The children loved her stories: The Gruffalo and The Snail and the Whale. The latter is a story of the little snail who saves a beached whale. It was the perfect way for our kids to start thinking about the importance of written expression.

We continued our adventure with snails on Wednesday when our big buddies came to read with us in the afternoon. The children sat with their Big Buddies and researched important facts about snails. All of the research they collected will go into their science notebooks.

On Thursday we made the covers to our science notebooks, using yellow and then blue finger paint. The covers became delightful shades of green. In the afternoon your children made snail puppets and we read the story, Snail: Where are You!"

We used our knowledge of snails for mathematics too! The children made a comparison chart of how many eyes,tails, heads, and shells one, two and three snails would have.

Your children amaze me with their confidence and wit!

Next week we will continue to discover all sorts of new things that live in shells.

Here is a list of the books we enjoyed this week-

Nonfiction Books
Bulhozer, Theres, 1987, “Life of the Snail” Carolrhoda Books Inc. Lucerne, Switzerland
Dorling Kindersley book, “What’s Inside? Shells,” Scholastic Edition: New York
Fowler, A. 1999, “A Snail’s Pace” Children’s Press: Canada
Green, J. 2004, “Nature’s Children: Snails,” Groller: Danbury, Connecticut
Holmes, K. 1998, “Snails,” Bridgestone Books: Mankato, Minnesota
Murray, P. 1998, “Snails,” The Children’s World, Inc:
Pascoe, E. and Kuhn, D. 1999, “Nature’s Closeup: Snails and slugs,” Balckbirch Press, Inc: Connecticut
Pyers, G. 2005, “Snails, Up Close,” Raintree: Chicago, Illinois
Ross, M. E. 1996, “Snailology,” Carolrhoda Books: Lucerne, Switzerland

Fiction Books
Ungerer, T. 1962, “Snail, Where are you?” Blue Apple:
McGuirk, L. 2003, “Snail Boy,” Candlewick Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Wadell, M. 2003, “Hi, Harry! The Moving Story of how One Slow Tortoise Slowly Made a Friend,” Candlewick press: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Donaldson, J and Scheffler A. 2003, “The Snail and the Whale,” MacMillan Children’s Books: London

A King's cake for me!

Today your kindergartners took an exciting adventure to France and the home of Puss n' Boots.



The kindy's used magnifying glasses to inspect bird's eye view post cards and they found out several interesting things. They saw color. They saw patterns. They found Puss n' Boots.



We read several versions of the Puss n' Boots, including the Caldecott award winning edition. Marcellino ExhibitPuss in Boots"

Your children practiced making jewelled patterns on their crowns and wore their to our afternoon party. Where we ate cake with our best manners!



We finished our day by finding something else that was hidden. We found two little garden gnomes hiding in our King's Cake.



Please be sure to check out the beautiful study of ordinary shapes your children completed. They are displayed in the main hallway.