Thursday, April 30, 2015

Caterpillars in Kindergarten

If there's one thing I've learned in the last year or so in my school, it's that if you want something, you have to make it known. The worst your principal can say is "no." In my case, the answer is normally yes.

I've learned that if you want something, you have to do these three things:

1. Do your research beforehand. Know what you want and have a plan for how you will use it.
2. If you're given what you asked for, USE it! My school has a very limited budget. If I were to get what I asked for and then not use it, I'd never get anything again. When administrators come into your room, they should be able to see the what you received in action. No one will want to purchase you something that you aren't actually going to utilize. That money would be better used toward something else.
3. Write thank you letters. Thank your principal for allowing the purchase of your materials. Include pictures of your kiddos using them and a snippet about what you and your kids learned.

Because I've followed those 3 steps in the past, my principal gladly said yes when I approached her about getting caterpillars for our classroom. We're getting ready to start a butterfly unit, and while reading books and watching videos are great, I really wanted to give my students a more authentic approach. The population that I teach don't typically get authentic experiences, so I really want to lean more in that direction from now on. I was able to persuade my school to purchase butterfly kits for all the K-1 classes, so we can all do this project together.

Today I introduced the caterpillars to my students. Each kid has their own caterpillar.




The little guys are living on our tables. My students can get some better observations throughout the day and take a little more ownership of the project if the caterpillars become part of our classroom, rather than just sitting on a shelf and me pulling them out once a day.

The stuff on the bottom of the cup is food. They'll eat the food and get bigger. Then they'll climb up to the lid, attach to the tissue paper, and spin their cocoon. Once they've been in the cocoons for a couple days, I'll transfer them into a netted pavilion, where they'll stay until they hatch. The butterflies can fly around in the pavilion for a couple days, and then we'll release them outside.

My students were so excited while we were getting the caterpillars into the cups this morning. We haven't officially started our unit yet, so the only thing they know about caterpillars is that they make cocoons and turn into butterflies. There was all kinds of great inquiry this morning, and the kids were asking some really great questions that we'll research next week.

The timeline for this project is about 3 or 4 weeks. It will overlap with some of our other units, but that's totally okay with me. I'm so thankful that we've been given this opportunity, and I'd love to get the chance to do this again in the future.

I'll keep you updated as the buggies grow and change!


Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Flexibility and Improvising

As teachers, we all know that things rarely go according to plan. In my personal life, I used to HATE to be flexible. However, my job forces me to. So in the last few years, I've learned to "go with the flow" both in my personal and professional life. I always have to think on my feet, change what I had planned, and come up with something on the fly.

Today was one of those days.

Since it's Earth Day, I had planned to get my kiddos outside and moving! We were going to do a Nature Walk outside, make observations about what we could see, hear, smell, and feel, and then pick up trash around the school. My students were super excited, and got their papers and clipboards ready. We put on jackets and headed out to the back door of the school...only to find out that it was sleeting! (We have no windows in our classroom, so I had no idea.) I took one look at their disappointed faces, and knew I had to improvise.


So I had all the kids sit down on the floor right by the door. We completed the "I See" part of the observation. Then we got ready for the "I Feel" part. I asked if they were ready...and then I opened the door. They got blasted in the face with cold wind and sleet! (Good thing we had jackets, huh?) We did the same thing for "I Hear" and "I Smell."

It certainly wasn't the picture-perfect Earth Day activity I had pictured.


But it ended up being a teachable moment (which are awesome, by the way!) When we got back to the classroom we sat down and talked about how sometimes things don't work out the way we planned, and "ya gotta do what ya gotta do" to make it work. We talked about other times plans have changed in our lives. It was good for me to be able to model flexibility for them, and for them to deal with their disappointment in appropriate ways.

**I DID promise that we'd do this activity again when the weather isn't nasty!



Monday, April 13, 2015

Rain Experiment

I mentioned that the week before Spring Break was Weather Week in kindergarten. I wanted to stop by and share a really cool demonstration I did to show my kiddos how rain works.

I found this demonstration idea on Pinterest. (What did we ever do without it?!)

You will need: A clear plastic cup filled 3/4 with water, shaving cream, and blue food coloring

I had all my students gather around my table for this demonstration. We'd already spent a few days learning about clouds, so we were ready to learn! I made a "cloud" on top of my water with shaving cream.

My kiddos knew that clouds were made of dust and water, but we talked about how even MORE water collects into clouds. I then started putting drops of blue food coloring in the cloud. We talked about how a cloud needs a LOT of water inside before it will rain. So we used a LOT of food coloring. After the food coloring became too heavy, the shaving cream broke open and the "rain" came down from the "cloud."



The looks on their faces when the rain came down was priceless! It was so much fun that we did the whole thing one more time. This time I had the kids explain what was happening during each step. And you can bet your bottom dollar that when we were finished, every single one of my students was able to tell you that rain occurs when water collects in a cloud until it gets too heavy. Then the cloud breaks open and rain comes out. For kindergarten, that's a pretty darn good understanding! 

Super simple, cheap, low-prep, but FULL of excitement and learning. When we were cleaning up, one of my students said, "Well...that was a fun activity!"

Monday, April 6, 2015

Cloud Study

I wanted to stop by quick to talk about a quick, cheap, and fun activity we did last week to learn about the different types of clouds! We learned about cirrus (thin, feathery clouds), stratus (a layer of clouds), and cumulus (white, puffy clouds). We read an article about the cloud types, looked at pictures, and watched a video. But I wanted to do something that would really help us remember them.

So I mixed together some shaving cream and glue to make Puffy Cloud Paint!
We did one cloud type at a time and were careful to make them just like they were supposed to look based on the type of cloud we were making.



 And here's how they turned out! Since I'd mixed glue with the shaving cream, it dried nice and puffy. They're really neat! At the end of this project, all 20 of my kiddos could tell you the 3 different types of clouds and what they look like.

The best part was when we went outside for recess and I had a bunch of students shouting, "Look at the sky! Cirrus clouds! They're thin and see-through. That means it's going to be nice weather!"

Hands-on learning is the best!

Sunday, April 5, 2015

St. Patrick's Day Shenanigans

I know it's Easter and everything, but I figure it's not too late to post about St. Patrick's Day, right?

We spent the week learning about Ireland and Leprechauns. We learned that Leprechauns are sneaky little creatures to like to play tricks on people. My students were paranoid all week that a Leprechaun was going to come into our classroom...so on Thursday night, I stayed a little late and had some fun!


I started by putting everyone on red. No one EVER gets on red this year, so I knew it would be a big deal!

 I turned all their chairs upside down and threw crayons all over the tables.

 Made some leprechaun footprints all over their tables and sprinkled some glitter all around. (It's important to note I have a good rapport with the custodial staff. I normally keep my room spic and span, so I can get away with throwing glitter all over the room every ONCE in awhile!)

 I moved our sticker charts all around.

I hung our beloved Pete the Cat upside down on the word wall. This is what outraged my kiddos the most! ("How DARE that leprechaun touch Pete the Cat! Who does he think he is?!)

Lastly, I left them a little note from the "leprechaun" on the board. I made sure to use my left hand, so they wouldn't recognize my handwriting!

It was so funny watching their faces as they came into the room the next day. They were so offended that a leprechaun would come into our classroom and mess with our things. They couldn't believe that he'd left a room-full of mess for THEM to clean up! It's all they could talk about all day! I even had them write about it during Writer's Workshop: What happened when the leprechaun came into our classroom, and how did you feel about it? The responses were fabulous!

If you have any suggestions for something I can add to the leprechaun's shenanigans for next year, leave a comment below!