Learning that seeds can move, without having legs to get around, is fascinating for young children. I like to open with questions, “Can seeds move? But why do you think that? But how can they move if they don’t have legs? … Continue reading
We love using Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom! to integrate our beginning of the year learning as we are focused on letters and sounds, numbers and counting, and our 5 senses. Our students LOVE the rhythm and rhyme of the story and … Continue reading
Every year that I’ve been creating curriculum packets, I learn more, which is wonderful, it makes me a better teacher, but then it also compels me to go back through curriculum that I have out there and make changes. I aspire to be as good as some of the amazing teachers out there blogging, creating, and working as teachers.
Summer has started, and I’ve dived back into some of the packets that I’ve been wanting to update. I’ve finished the Goldfish and Worm packet… for this year at least! I love science and so this has been at the top of my list for some time now 🙂
I’ve updated the look, expanded the ‘big’ questions that you can explore with your class, and created some fact pages that you can make into a book and use as a guide as you and your students go through the units.
Clipart generally becomes one of the biggest challenges to creating curriculum for me. I’ve learned how to make my own drawings, scan them, and photoshop them as a supplement. My daughter actually made most of the art for both of these packets, which as awesome. Below is her beautiful goldfish.
I still a beginner with photoshop, so I am sure as I continue to work with it, as with anything, I’ll get better, learn new tricks, and then find myself back in older documents, updating my work. I tend to do best with scientific drawings, though they can be somewhat rudimentary. I am live in a house full of artists, so I am hoping, as with blogging, I’ll get better as I go, develop a personal style that I feel comfortable with, and learn all the tools I need to make work I am proud of and that other teachers enjoy.
Can you tell who drew the picture of the adult worm and who drew the hatchling and cocoon? Which was mother and which was daughter? At least I got the job done and the science across.
The kids art, of course, is always my most favorite.
Happy learning!
x Our amazing Nurse Ellie on campus became our garden steward- planting and tending to all the gardens in our courtyard. She made our campus so beautiful and full of life. The kinders and I walked by this sunflower every … Continue reading
First, I put up a few images of apples from Discovery Education. There was a picture of an apple tree, a few different kinds of apples, and two apples that had been cut open. We brainstormed all the things we … Continue reading
It’s a new month! We filled out our September calendars and added them to our science notebooks. Then we made predictions about our egg… would it float?
Most of the class thought it would. After our predictions were recorded, we did our test!
The kids drew our results for their notebooks. It was a fun little experiment!
These pages can be found in this Humpty Dumpty unit. 
Click on the image to see it at TpT!
I’m getting ready for a new year, going through old materials, updating and adding to them. Our units keep changing in kindergarten, but this was a fun one. I love finding ways to integrate science into our themes, that always seems to be the spark that engages all the kids in learning.
Here are a few sample pages from the pack. Click on the images to learn more!
Teach, play, and lean with Nursery rhymes!
Here are a few sample pages from the packet
Click on the image to see more!
We have fish!
Fist we looked at a photograph of a goldfish up on the document camera.
I asked the class, “What do you see? What do you wonder?” I got this idea from a recent training from this really dynamic presenter from Discovery Education.
I love this so much more than a KWL because often the things the kids think they know are actually not scientifically correct, so I can quickly change statements like,
“I see snails in the tank” to “Oh, I wonder if there are snails in the tank? That’s a good question.”
The kids are freed to really explore their logic and thinking.
Later, we drew and labeled diagrams with all of the fish parts we identified.
We talked about how sometimes scientists have to be artists. 
I’ll post more as we dig deeper into this exploration. Topics to come are habitats, needs, movement, and more!
Hooray for spring!
The kids and I are loving the beautiful weather, feeling the warm arizona sun, seeing all kinds of clouds, and enjoying lots of cool breezes.
We are beginning a new science unit on living and n0n-living, animals, eggs, worms, and more.
The kids are so excited!
We started with what we wondered. How do we know if something is alive or not alive?
We watched this video from PSB and the kids discussed which things they though were alive, which were not, and why.
The kids drew pictures in their science journal of things they thought were living or non-living as a pre-assessment. Many of the kids put trees and jellyfish as non-living.
The kids were so excited to share their ideas and thinking.
This song helped us learn the characteristics of living things:
Then we completed this chart together.
The kids didn’t know that trees breathed or that the seeds were part of reproduction. They also had to figure out how to distinguish between objects that move because of electricity, heat, or wind and objects that move on their own. They also weren’t sure if gas could be considered a type of food for cars.
This is a really fun topic to explore with your students. I highly recommend it. Give them lots of time to express their ideas and the logic behind their thinking.
At one point I had a girl say to me, “but Ms. Holland, boys do not have babies.” Only to have one of the boys in the classroom counter, “They help! I know they do!”
Be ready for anything.
Kinderlove and Learning 