Winter Fun!

Here is some winter fun in kindergarten.  I send out a Smilebox to my parents each month so they can share in the learning!  Enjoy!

Scrapbook made with Smilebox

What I'm Loving

I am so thankful for my beautiful class, family and to be able to do what I love each day!

After a wonderful Valentine's Week I am ready to share what I'm Loving....

My adorable class!

My family.  I am so blessed to have them!

I can't live without my Ugh boots.  The first thing I do every day when I get home from school is put these things on.

My new IPhone 5.

Heading to the Colorado Rockie Mountains today!  So excited to see my sister.

My two favorite cookbooks!  Nothing makes a day better than good food at the end of it.  These cookbooks are foolproof.  I always use them for dinner parties and for entertaining.

and last but certainly not least...

I survive on this :)

Join Kathleen at Growing Kinders to join this Linky Party just click here!

Insulation Science Experiment

It's terrific Tuesday and we started off the week with yet another science experiment from my STEM unit.  Ok I think this experiment was the best so far.  Thank you to my wonderful colleague who shared this with me.  It was the icing on the cake!

Today we decided to test different materials to see which one was the best insulator:

Foam

Rubber

Cotton

Wool

Blubber

Materials needed are a bucket, ice, and a ziplock bag.  That's all!  

Step one:  Prediction

What material will make the best insulator?

Step two:  Experiment

Try all materials to see which material is the warmest.  My kiddos were so excited to try out the blubber glove, cotton glove, and all the materials.

Step Three:  Collect Data

We rated each material from 1 to 5.  1 being the warmest and 5 being the coldest.

Then we used our interactive whiteboard and recorded our findings with tally marks!

Step Four:  Reflection

Together as a class we reflected on our findings.  For our class we decided blubber was the warmest.  We also make personal connections by asking essential questions like what did this make you think of?  One kiddo answered, "Massachusetts, because I used to live in the cold."

So cute :)

  

Teaching Inquiry

I love the weekend because I have more time to reflect on the week before.  This past week was filled with exploring, discovering, and learning about penguins.  I always start a lesson with "I wonder" questions.  This helps guide my lessons and it gets my kiddos thinking.  We all know how we need to trigger those schemas to start the learning process.  So we started off the week writing our "I wonder" questions about penguins.  Then we started reading several fiction and nonfiction books about penguins. Did I mention my kiddos are CRAZY for Tacky the Penguin books.  My kiddos also love to label especially animals.  So that's just what we did.  We went into our science journals and we labeled away.  I usually model for the kids how to do this and then I let them draw and label on their own.

Take a look below.  My little kiddos did a wonderful job with labeling :)

So the next time you are introducing a new topic or unit, try having your kiddos write down a "I wonder" question.  It really triggers the learning process and it gets the kids actively involved in the learning process.

Building Igloos

Well the month of January is officially over and what a busy month we had in Room 8.  In honor of the season winter, we spent the entire month learning about the arctic.  Sharing, exploring, and discovering together made our classroom a wonderful place to visit each day.  Today we predicted which type of igloo would be the strongest.  My kiddos had three choices to choose from.

Marshmallows with toothpicks

Sugar cubes with magic glue(shaving cream and white glue mixed together)

or

Cotton balls with a Styrofoam cup

What would you choose?  It was pretty much even in our class with one little one deciding on her own to use the cotton balls.  Now lets take a look at what happen...

What is a blueprint?

My kiddos were excited to be little engineers and plan out what their igloo was going to look like.  They sat there for a whole 25 minutes drawing their blueprints.  I gave them special black colored pencils to make it official! When it came time to start building the igloos, my kiddos put their blueprint right in front of them as they built their igloo.

We did have some tears through the process.  Some of my kiddos were frustrated when their igloo was not as strong as they thought it would be.  Some were  angry that it was difficult to make the roof for the igloo.  So this was a perfect opportunity to teach life skills such as patience and perseverance.  A great activity and I will definitely do it again!

A Sweet Giveaway!

To share in the spirit of Valentine's Day, I just found a wonderful and SWEET giveaway on one of my newest followers, 

Live, Laugh, I love Kindergarten!

Check it out!
http://livelaughilovekindergarten.blogspot.com/

Snowflake Measuring

Snowflakes, snowmen, and ice houses, oh my!  We came back after the winter break to a winter wonderland in kindergarten.  Throughout the month  we've been studying the arctic.  Today my kiddos did some measuring with snowflakes.  Each student had a partner to measure.  After measuring, my kiddos completed a page for our class book.  I can't remember where I found this fabulous lesson, so please let me know if it's yours :)!

What is insulation?  My little scientists built ice houses.  We started bright and early by placing an ice cube inside each house, and we kept track by watching the clock to see how long it took for the ice to melt.  Some ice cubes lasted all the way until 3:00pm!  My kiddos loved this experiment!
Tomorrow we are building igloos!