May was such a busy month! Our class dove into water and learned about the sea and jumped into a space shuttle and flew into outer space. Our class also had fun learning about plant life cycles and had a blast during Grandparents Day and at our field trip to the Zoo!
The first two weeks we explored the animals of the ocean. We first started by defining mammals. I explained to them that they are warm blooded and both land and sea mammels have hair on their bodies and give birth to their babies. The first mammals we talked about were the dolphin and whale. The children learned that dolphins can stay under water for 15 minutes, but can’t breathe under water so they have to come up for air. The children learned that they live in groups of ten to twelve and that there are thirty-six different kinds of dolphins. During this discussion we talked about how the Killer Whale is the largest dolphin.
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The second mammal in the sea that we discussed were whales. The children learned that since whales breathe like us they can only stay under water for a short period of time and then they have to come up for air by using their blowhole on the top of their heads. They also learned there are two types of whales: the Baleen and the Toothed whale. The children were interested in what whales ate and how fast they can swim. Together we looked through books and found out that whales can swim up to 30 mph and that baleen whales eat krill and toothed whales eat small fish and other small mammals. The last mammal of the sea we discussed was the Manatee. The children found out that manatees were first found out by fishermen who saw the long tails and thought they were looking at mermaids! The children also learned that they could weigh as much as 2000 lbs., and can swim up to 20 mph hour but usually cruise around the sea at 2 to 6 mph. Also, during that week the children made a Venn diagram about fish and mammals. The children did a great job with this activity. They knew that fish do not have lungs, but have gills instead. Mammals are warm-blooded and fish are not. That most mammals live on land, but fish have to stay in the water and both have a vertebrate. What smarties I have!!
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We then focused on outer space. During this time we learned about the solar system, stars and constellations, galaxies, the eight planets, the sun and moon, the space shuttle, and the first man who walked on the moon. Wow, what a busy couple of weeks! We first stared out by creating a web of the solar system. Throughout our space lesson the children added the information they have learned onto the web. During our lesson, the children learned about the eight planets since the 9th planet is now a dwarf planet. They learned the order of the planets and neat little facts about each one. They loved learning about Jupiter and its famous hurricane like storm. They thought it was pretty cool that Mars is called the “red planet” due to the red dirt, dust and sky. We also learned about how there are thousands of different galaxies and how the spiral shape is the most common type. The children also learned about night and day. For this activity I had one child stand in the middle of the circle and pretend they were the sun. I then had another child pretend to be the earth. I explained to them that the Earth takes 365 days to orbit around the sun, but as it’s orbiting it is also rotating. The kids loved this activity!! During this time we talked about what stars are, the lunar eclipse, the different constellations, and about observatories. We then talked about Neil Armstrong and how if they went to the moon they would still see his footprint. Near the end of our outer space lesson the children learned about life in space, gravity, and astronauts. I showed a video of a launch and what it is like for astronauts up in space. The children loved it!!
We then focused on the plant, butterfly, and frog life cycles. The children learned the parts of the flower, what plants need to grow, and the purpose of the stem. We also had fun placing celery stems into dyed water to show how plants drink through their veins. We also had fun learning about the different stages of the butterfly and what metamorphosis was all about. Lastly we learned out the different stages of the frog with amazing books and videos!
Also, during this month we celebrated Grandparents Day in our classroom. The grandparents were able to come in and join us for a special line time, music class and then a craft. It was such a special day for the children.
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With the last two weeks remaining, the children had a blast learning about different insects. The children discovered that insects have six legs but spiders and other arachnids have 8 legs. The children were also able to learn the life cycle of the butterfly and find out why bees are so important to us. We also had fun discussing ladybugs and other beetles. During the last week of school the children learned about who invented ice cream, watched a video about how ice cream is made, learned all about camping. Also during the last week we had an ice cream party and a mock camp out with s’mores! Wow what a week we had!
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I can’t believe how fast the school year has gone by. I have truly enjoyed watching my kiddos grow throughout the year. I will miss them so very much. Also, thank you to all of my families, for everything that you have done this year. I wish the best of luck to those families who are going to new schools and look forward to seeing everyone else next school year! Have a great summer!!!
Academic Enrichment lesson with kindergarten students (Mr. John)
We started May by discussing the preposition. Where oh where can we find a preposition? Well, I told them a preposition was a “where word” NOT a “werewolf”. The kindergarteners brushed up on their knowledge of the interjection. The interjection adds emotion to the sentence but we did find out that if we eliminate the interjection from the sentence, the meaning of the sentence really does not change. We learned what punctuation is used at the end of a sentence. We use a period (.) when we are stating something. We use a question mark (?) when we are asking a question and we use an exclamation mark (!) when we show excitement or a lot of emotion. I introduced the students to the rules of capitalization. We learned that words at the beginning of the sentence, the word I, and proper nouns need to be capitalized. We played “mad libs” and ended our lessons on grammar by watching Grammar Rock. For the last week we just reflected on our year, what we learned, and our favorite parts of kindergarten class. It was a GREAT year!
Ms. Ame’s Corner
Art: This month Michelle started off with her summer themed art. The students started by making their very own monster ice cream cones. The students designed their own scoops, cones and toppings making some very interesting desserts! The next week the students used oil pastels and water colors to draw a swimtastic picture. Michelle asked the students to draw a picture of a popular summertime activity, swimming! Because she started the year off with butterflies, Michele wanted to end the year with butterflies. Using their cutting skills the students folded a paper in half then cut out a butterfly. Michelle talked about symmetrical and asymmetrical things in the classroom. After cutting out the butterflies, the students then colored them using either warm or cool colors. Thank you Miss Michele for a wonderful and creative school year!
Music: Ms. Lisa spent the first two weeks in May preparing the students for different activities and songs to sing on Grandparents day. We continued to learn and review different notes. Ms. Lisa has some clever pictures to help the students. Then we also practiced clapping and tapping out different patterns using the different notes. Grandparents day was fantastic. We hope all the grandparents enjoyed Ms.Lisa’s class. On our final day of music, Ms. Lisa incorporated all the favorites from the year. This year the students learned so much about notes, rhythm, singing, musical terms, identifying noises (both instrumental and common sounds) and had a wonderful time playing Ms.Lisa’s musical games and instruments. Thank you so much Lisa for another wonderful year!
Science: Mr. John’s first experiment of the month was making gloop! Using glue, water and borax, Mr. John made a substance that turns from solid to liquid depending on the amount of pressure is being put against it. His second experiment was a popping sensation. Mr. John took 2 balloons, one filled with only air and the other with water and air. He then put the balloons over a candle flame. Check in with your student to see what happened to both balloons! At our last science class with Mr. John (insert dramatic crying sounds here), Mr. John did a tea bag experiment. Taking an empty tea bag and unwrapping it, what happens when you set it on fire? Mr. John rolled it into a cylinder, lit the top on fire and then it started to burn. When it was almost burnt all the way to the bottom the burning tea bag floated into the air like one of the lanterns in Tangled. Then as it floated up it extinguished itself. Why did it float? Ask your student or look at Mr.John’s paper with the experiment that was sent home in your child’s folder. Thank you Mr.John for another science filled year! The kids loved all the crazy experiments. Can’t wait to see what new one’s you’ll come up with next year!