PENGUINS!

Haaaaa! I saw this on Pinterest and it had me cracking up! First of all how many of you have watched March of the Penguins? If you have not you should definitely watch it before doing a penguin unit. My mom bought it for me a few years back and after our unit I went back and watched it again—it is so good! I cried like a baby a few times but it is a great documentary!  I wish my kinder babes could enjoy it too but I know they’d be bored to tears. Maybe they will appreciate it in a few years. J

I taught polar animals for two weeks this year. So our first week was all about Walruses and our second week was all about Penguins. We started by reading the book Antarctica by Helen Cowcher. We also looked up some penguin facts on Science Kids. You can find that website HERE. After we learned some information about penguins we charted them on the chart below.

We used some activities from Deanna Jump’s Penguin Math & Literacy Fun Unit on TPT HERE. It was definitely a fun filled week! I hope you saw something that you can use in your own penguin unit! Check back to see how I do reading groups in my K classroom! 

Christmas, A New Year, and some Walrus fun!

       So I started Christmas break almost a month ago now (oh my!) with one thing in mind! RELAXATION! I know you were probably thinking the exact same thing as me, right?! Well I did just that! I had a wonderful time on the couch reading, eating (WAY too much), and spending time with my honey and family! Whew! So this being our second week back and I am so out of whack! Unfortunately, with all that relaxation I neglected my poor little blog! So I am trying to make up for that today with one post! Ha!

       Now that we are back in school we have been learning all about Polar Animals! These two weeks are one of my favorite things to teach! I could probably spend every week of the year teaching about animals! I just LOVE it! Anyway we started by learning all about Walruses and reviewed what we already learned about Polar Bears a few weeks ago in our bear unit. As you know, I am OBSESSED with Deanna Jump, so I used some of her Arctic Animal Unit (You can find that HERE) combined with some other activities from Pinterest and some from my brain. Ha!

       We had so much fun and we learned so much about these animal friends from the North Pole! I hope that there was something here you saw that you can use in your own Polar Animals Unit! Check back for our next adventure—PENGUINS! 

Christmas Program 2015

Our Christmas Program was a success! I’m a little late posting the pictures but they were too cute not to share! Check out my little cuties!  

Tis' the Season to be JOLLY!

Man has it been a CRAZY few weeks! Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending a mixer with members from my sorority, Alpha Phi! I attended college at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany and graduated in 2012. When I was there I decided to join a sorority! Definitely one of the best decisions of my life! Here is a look at our little get together!  

We’ve Gone BuGGy!

For two weeks we have been learning all about insects! I always start by telling the kids that they are going to be scientists! This always gets them excited for our next adventure. For this unit we are entomologists (scientists who study insects). As I’m sure you do, I ALWAYS play it up when we are introducing a new topic. Have you ever talked at home like you do to your students? HA! My boyfriend thinks I’m crazy when I do this…LOL. Anyway we read a few books about insects and we filled in a can have are chart. I LOVE using the can have are chart because it is easy for the kids to follow along and to sort our ideas. Since our insect unit is two weeks long we focus on two insects each week. The first week we learn all about bees and ants, and the following week we focus on butterflies and fireflies. We also practice comparing and contrasting with each of the insects on a Venn diagram. We finish out our unit by making our own insect with marshmallows, chocolate chips, twizzlers and pretzels! The kids can choose what they want but their insect must have a head, thorax, an abdomen, antennae and six legs. Send them home in a Ziploc for a fun treat to share with parents! 

    

                                     

APPLES!

HAPPY APPLE WEEK!

If you're like me then you love to eat! I like teaching about food because well…it’s something I think about ALL the time! One of my favorite things to teach about is apples! The week before our apple unit I send home a sheet explaining the apple activities we will be completing and I ask for each child to bring in two apples of any kind. This year I only have 14 kids so that gave us 28 apples to work with. The apples will be used to do several different activities throughout the week (it also keeps me from spending more of my own money). We started by using our schema to discuss what we know about apples! We read a book about apples of course, and we taste tested a red, a yellow and a green apple. This can be easily used to graph on chart paper. I also introduced Johnny Appleseed and we charted the facts we learned about him. I like to incorporate researching on the computer as another way to learn information. You will want to do this BEFORE you do it with the class. That way you can preview the sites that you want to use with your class. This way they understand that there is many different ways to learn about something. Our apple week also consists of making applesauce and dipping our own caramel apples. It is a busy and hectic week but the kids love it—and that’s all that matters! J