Five Senses

Our first science unit of the year is Five Senses. This is by far, one of my favorite units because there a million activities you could do and it's fun to change them up every year! When we teach this unit, we focus on one sense each day. We have purchased many nonfiction books that we read about each sense in addition to checking out books from the school and public library. As we read each book on a different sense, we create a concept map with the students. When we create concept maps, I always print out pictures after the students generate a list so that they can refer back to it and also remember what we discussed. I find that the students have a tendency to use the posters more in their writing and during free choice time. 

On the last day of our five senses unit, we have a Tasting Party! This is an exciting time for the students as they get to explore the taste buds on their tongue and decide how the food tastes. We use pretzels for salty, Hershey chocolate bars for sweet, a lemon wedge for sour and an orange rind for bitter. It is funny to watch the students' reactions as they try each food. Of course the pretzels and chocolate are always the favorite amongst the little ones!

Here is a picture of all of our completed concept maps. It is hard to read from the angle of the picture, but hopefully you get the idea!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins!

During the month of October, we do small unit on pumpkins that goes along with our theme of fall. We read many nonfiction books about the life cycle of pumpkins followed by sequencing activities, writing,    construction paper shape pumpkins and other projects. Below you will see some of the different activities we did during this unit!

To make our pumpkins, I covered one table with butcher paper and taped it down. This made my clean-up duty a lot easier! Then, I showed a group of students how to crumple up a piece of newspaper and stuff the brown paper bag. I helped the students tie their "stem" using a piece of green yarn. Finally, it was time for the fun! The students painted their pumpkin orange and could either use green or brown paint for their stem. They had so much fun and it was so easy!

A student in action!

Since the pumpkins were too tall to fit in my drying rack, I put extra butcher paper on the floor and laid out a picture of each child in my class. After the students were finished, they put their pumpkin next to their photo. I have never tried this before, but from now on, this is my go-to plan! This was so easy and I didn't have to worry about kiddos forgetting to write their name or painting over their name. I just checked before I took them off the paper when they were dry. 

After all of the pumpkins were dry, I used masking tape to tape the pumpkins above the students' lockers. It looked so cool as you walked down the hallway and really got us into the fall spirit!

After we graphed, we analyzed our graph by counting how many students preferred each carving and then added up all the numbers to make sure we had 19 votes!

After reading a book about Jack-O-Lanterns and learning the poem, Jack-O-Feelings, the students graphed their favorite Jack-O-Lantern on the Interactive Whiteboard (or magic board as we call it in my room!).

This was a fun craft that we did after a busy week. The students created their own "Candy Corn Friend"!

We decorated our door during free choice time! The sign on the door read "We're batty for learning!". We were in the middle of our nocturnal animal unit and it was almost Halloween! Talk about perfect planning! :)

Nocturnal Animals

During the fall, we study nocturnal animals. To start the unit, I check out a plethora of books from the school and public library. We read nonfiction books during science and discuss the difference between nocturnal and diurnal animals. We do a great deal of activities, but unfortunately, I have only captured some of the things we completed during this unit.

We made owls using brown paper plates.

We made bats for our classroom door. 

We created a list of facts about bats after reading a nonfiction text. 

We created a list of facts about owls after reading a nonfiction text. 

As you can see, this ended up being a Venn Diagram!

Patterns All Around Us

One of the first units we work on in math at the beginning of the year is patterns! The students become great detectives as they peruse magazines and things around the school in search of different patterns. After creating patterns using unifix cubes and other manipulatives, we conclude the unit by cutting out patterns found in magazines. The students have to determine what is a pattern and then sort the patterns onto three different poster boards. This is a great activity for a quick informal assessment and the students have a blast cutting out pictures from magazines. We display the posters in the room for a reference! 

*At the beginning of the year, we ask parents to donate magazines that are appropriate for kindergarten students. It is vital to go through each magazine before allowing the students to use them for activities. You never know what kind of ad you will find...even in family magazines! 

These two students are searching for patterns. 

This student is glueing his pattern onto the correct poster board.

During our pattern unit, we send a letter home to all of the kindergarten families asking them to help their child choose an article of clothing with a pattern to wear to school on a certain day. The students always run down the hallway showing off their patterned clothes! Some students get super creative and wear everything that has a pattern! It is quite a mismatching day, but so fun to discuss and talk about! Here is a picture of my girls in stripes!

More stripes!

Here are some boys in stripes!

Interesting patterns!

Our one student who wore plaid. I would have loved to show his face because he has this giant open-mouthed grin, depicting his excitement! You can tell by his great pose!

This little friend brought in her father's ties!

The finished product.

The finished product.

The finished product.