Zoo Field Trip

Though it was cold and drizzly all day my students had a blast at the zoo! Lots of zoo babies including lion cubs, foxes and a calf, for the kids to see this year! We also had the pleasure of seeing quite a few of the animals using the rest room (hippo, cow and giraffe). But, by far, the best part was how much the kids were learning. As we went along there were so many opportunities to teach them little facts like what it means to be nocturnal or camouflaged, why camels have humps, how to tell if a peacock is male or female, etc. While of course it's no where close to being true, it made my day when Amber enthusiastically said, "Miss Popkey, you know everything!"

Lion cubs fight over a stump to chew on

This calf is only 2 weeks old!

Elephants!

Male peacocks are the ones with the pretty feathers.

Giant tracks

Noah's silly shark mask

Life-Size Leprechauns

Another fun holiday craft idea from retired Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Boor!
I'd say they turned out pretty cute :)

S is for Shaving Cream

Here students who worked hard and finished their morning message early got to practice the letter of the day (s) in shaving cream!! It's really not as messy as it looks and wiping it away really cleans up the tables :)

Bowling for... Science?

Okay, so our Science unit for the month of March is called Pushes and Pulls. We started off the unit by taking a tour of the school and even went outside in search of things that were moving. We drew pictures of things we saw moving and then put them into two groups, living and non-living. We then learned that living things like people and animals can move on their own. We drew pictures of our partners faces and bodies and circled all the parts that we can move (ex. eyebrows, arms, hips, etc.). In this lesson we learned that non-living things need a push or a pull in order to move. I thought a fun way for the kids to see this was to do some bowling. The bowling pins obviously do not move around on their own but with the push of a bowling ball they can go flying! Obviously the kids loved it and made the science connection too :)

Math: Addition

Math: We've been learning how to add up to 10! We love using manipulatives to add!

This is a math center called "Slide and Count". Here students put the correct number of pegs in each box and then slide them down, using a foam comb, to the answer box to count them all together.

We are also memorizing our addition doubles up to 10! These are some posters I made to give the students a visual. We recite them every day during our morning meeting.

I also had the students make doubles booklets. The covers say I Love to Add! Inside students made pictures of things they would like to double. For example, I love cupcakes so adding more cupcakes is always fun!

Science: Magnets

Science: We've been learning about magnets: Types of magnets, their poles, what they do/don't attract, if they are strong enough to travel through different materials and where we can find magnets around our house!

In this center students were able to experiment with magnets and how they work through materials like plastic... and even water!