School Age is a Hoot!

More Ocean Activities

2011-08-24T17:08:00.001-07:00

Sorting ocean creatures

Ocean creatures in the rice table

Ocean creatures in salt and fresh water

Measuring with goldfish crackers

This is from the activity in my earlier post. After the kids used the ocean words and the pocket chart they made up their own sentences.

This one says "I went riding in a car, I saw a beaver building by me." :)

Ocean Commotion

2011-08-19T21:52:00.001-07:00

For the last two weeks we've been learning about the ocean. It was only supposed to be a one week theme but I kept finding more and more activities I wanted to do so now I've stretched it into next week!! Anyway, here are pictures of one of the activities we did. I found a picture of it on pinterest but couldn't find the source so I made my own.

Here is the original picture

First we read the sentences using different ocean animals

Then we brainstormed other verbs and nouns we could use and then read the sentences again

P.S. I'm really sorry but I completely forgot where I got the clipart for the ocean animals :(

Toddler Tuesday!

2011-08-09T16:21:00.000-07:00

Sensory

Shaving cream on a pizza tray with rollers, sponges, pom poms, etc. The great thing about doing the shaving cream on a pizza tray is that you can stack them up and take them to the sink when you're all done with minimal table clean up! And they are only around $2 for 3 of them at walmart!

Art & Literacy

One of my favorite books is "Elmer" by David McKee about a Patchwork Elephant who wants to be like everyone else until he realizes that life is boring without all his color! To go along with the book we made patchwork elephants of our own using an elephant outline and tissue paper squares.

Ants in our Pants!

2011-08-06T15:24:00.001-07:00

Here are just a few of the things we did during our Ant themed week!

I got this Ant Chart from "Welcome to Room 36" I can't find the exact post :( I thought I had it saved but here is my version.

We read the book "Ant and Honeybee: What a Pair" by Megan McDonald and made a list of "pairs."

In the theme of bees we also learned about prefixes and suffixes using a beehive. This idea came from The Mailbox magazine.

We read two versions of "The Ant and the Grasshopper" then made a venn diagram to compare and contrast them.

We graphed our favorite picnic foods: Hamburgers or Hot Dogs! This idea came from The Mailbox magazine.

We also made a chart of -ant words which I don't have a picture of and made a word wall list of long a and short a words.

Toddler Tuesday!

2011-08-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

Here is a fun activity that my toddlers loved!

Use masking tape to attach a piece of contact paper sticky side UP to the table.
Give kids all kinds of fun, random collage items and let them stick it to the contact paper. Talk about how the sticky paper feels along with all the other fun textures!
After kids are done take another piece of contact paper and place it sticky side DOWN on top of the original.
Hang from the ceiling so you can see from both sides!

Pet Peeves Linky Party

2011-08-01T18:36:00.001-07:00

I'm still new to this blogging thing but I'm learning about linky parties so I thought I'd join one.

The Bubbly Blonde wants to know what our classroom pet peeves are. Here are my top 3!

1. Asking when we're going to do things that we do every day at the same time - When are we going to have snack?...Same time we did yesterday...When are we going outside?...Same time we did yesterday...BLAH!

2. Tattling!!!!!! Need I say more?!

3. Asking what the directions were two minutes after I gave them - When this happens I usually say "Ask a friend."

What are your classroom pet peeves?

More Architecture Fun

2011-08-01T18:03:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more activities we did for our Architecture Unit...

Marshmallow Towers - http://pbskids.org/zoom/printables/activities/pdfs/marshmallowtower.pdf

Gumdrop Domes-We made the domes on Tuesday then tested them on Friday to see how many chapter books they could hold. The best one held 12 books! http://pbskids.org/zoom/printables/activities/pdfs/gumdropdome.pdf

Graham Cracker Houses - On Wednesday's we do "Kids in the Kitchen" so we used graham crackers and colored frosting to make houses.

Check back tomorrow for Toddler Tuesday!!

Architecture

2011-07-31T16:52:00.001-07:00

The first week of summer our main field trip was to a large playground dubbed "Chutes and Ladders." I decided to use "Architecture" as our theme for the week so we could talk about how things get built! Here is a list of a few of the activities we did throughout the week.

Math

Grid work house - http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/GridWordHouse.htm
"Look how I measure up!" - using paperclips as a non-standard measurement tool. We talked about non-standard measurement tools and ways to measure things if you don't have a ruler, etc. handy. Then we measured each other and things around the room using paper clips.
"Bubble Mania" - measuring circumference, diameter and radius. We talked about circles and how they are measured then we made soap bubble prints and measured them.

We used VERY rough versions (i.e. handwritten, sans clipart) of these worksheets to record our data. You can find THESE fancied up versions in my TpT store by clicking here.

Measuring AROUND the room - the kids used string and measuring tapes to find 5 round things in the room to measure the circumference and diameter of.

This worksheet can be found on my TpT site for FREE. Just click here!

Check back tomorrow for more activities from our "Architecture" theme.

Stop by on Tuesday for "Toddler Tuesday." Since I was in the toddler room for a year and a half before I moved to school-age I'll be showcasing a few of the fun things I did with the little ones!

Frozen Excavation

2011-07-30T19:54:00.000-07:00

Early in June one of our weekly themes was "Archeology." I had seen this super fun idea over at Counting Coconuts and decided to try it. I wasn't sure how the kids would respond since I have such a large age range (K-5th) but honestly you would have thought it was Christmas morning and I'd just given them all iPods! In fact just yesterday (a month later) one of the boys asked me when we could do the "frozen thing" again.

To make them I just froze plastic animals from Dollar Tree into three different shaped containers. I should have done it earlier in the day but of course I procrastinated and stuck them in the freezer at 10 pm so they weren't fully frozen the next morning which meant pushing back the activity to the next day. I also added food coloring and a little oil. I was hoping the oil would look bubbly once the water froze but it didn't and honestly just made more of a mess when it came to clean-up so I'd recommend leaving it out!

I put the frozen blocks in our sensory table and gave the kids little cups of flour, salt, sugar, sand, dirt, warm and cold water. They also got spoons and eye droppers. Then I let them go at it. We rotate through stations in the morning so there are usually only 2-3 at a station but I had to give out lots of reminders to stay in your own station that morning because they all kept congregating by the sensory table to "just watch." :)

Animals I used...

The mess at the end!

Actually the mess was even worse when I opened the table at the end of the day to clean it out and everything had fully melted. It was like the bottom of a really dirty river...lucky me! They don't call me the "messy teacher" for nothing :)