Awesome Scientists!

THE SCIENCE FAIR is happening this Monday, March 12th from 12-2pm upstairs in the library!  Our class worked super hard this week to get ready for it.  Our class really focused on the PROCESS of science. First of all, we learned about the scientific method.  Here the kids are putting the steps of the Scientific Method in order.

FIRST STEP:  Ask a question!  Since we are studying weather, I did set the parameter that their project had to be about the weather, in some way.  Other than that, the kids came up with their own questions.  They were awesome!  Some of the questions were, "How does rain fall?  How are snowballs made?  What makes ice melt?  Can we walk on the clouds?  What makes a rainbow?  Will icicles grow back if we pick them?  Can wind move a rock?"  The kids placed themselves into collaborative groups, depending upon what they were interested in studying.

NEXT, we made our HYPOTHESES, our best guess as to the answer to our question. 

Then, we DESIGNED EXPERIMENTS to test our hypotheses.  For this step, the kids conferenced with me, but largely came up with their own experiments.  For example, to find out if wind could blow a rock away, one student came up with the idea to tie a string to a rock and tie it to a balloon, and then take it outside to see if it would blow away.  All his idea!  So first we made an anemometer in class to measure the windspeed:

Next we took it outside to the windiest spot on the playground.  The kids all knew instantly where we should go:  the top of the sledding hill!  It worked great!

To find out the results of our experiment with the rocks, you'll just have to come to the fair!

Here are some pictures of the other experiments going on in kindergarten this week...

Next came the OBSERVATION step of our scientific method.  The kids recorded their observations and then drew CONCLUSIONS about what they had learned.

Finally, we are going to REPORT our findings on Monday!  

We learned about recording data and displaying it in graphs in math, to go along with our science project unit.  The kids had a great time creating surveys and asking their friends all sorts of questions, recording their data, and turning it into either a pictograph or a bar graph!

Doing this project has made me realize just how far the kids have come this year.  They were SO excited about their experiments, and doing some GREAT critical thinking...  Our kinders are AWESOME SCIENTISTS!  

See you at the fair!  

In other news, this week is another early release on Friday, at 1:45.  

We also will be having the BATTLE OF THE BOOKS this Tuesday in the library at 10 am!  Families are invited and encouraged to attend both the Battle and the Science fair!

Cats in Hats

This post is catching up from two weeks ago!  So much has happened I couldn't fit it all into one!

First we began on Monday with our Read at the Beach Party...complete with beach towels, summer attire, and lemonade.

The rest of the week was Dr. Seuss all the way!  In math, we made a mystery picture, identifying numbers on our hundreds chart to discover the Cat in the Hat!

We had dress up days all week to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday.  Tuesday was Cat in the Hat day, so everyone wore silly hats.  Thank you to Mrs. Kran for bringing in TONS of fun hats for us to wear!  The kids had a blast! (Don't worry, we didn't trade hats!)

In reading we worked on recognizing word families.  Everyone chose a different word family and made a Cat in the Hat word family hat!

We also read If I Ran the Zoo and talked about how Dr. Seuss learned to draw such funny looking characters.  Then we got creative and made our own silly animals for our zoo!

Our class was tasked with making the Green Eggs for the school's Green Eggs and Ham lunch on Friday.  It was lots of messy fun, as you can see!

And finally, the class began on Monday to practice for a reader's theater of the book Green Eggs and Ham, which they performed on Friday for families and their 5th Grade Book Buddies.  Kids were found reading Green Eggs and Ham all week around the classroom, they couldn't put it down!  More than once I heard, "Ms. Deb!  I can read this whole book now!"  Kids having fun reading and becoming more fluent readers?  Mission accomplished!

They did a fabulous job, made some great props, and had a fun Dr. Seuss birthday party with the audience afterwards!!!  Thank you to everyone who came, and to everyone who spent time practicing with your kinder at home.  It really showed!  And special thanks to Trapper, who just happened to have a stuffed goat, a stuffed mouse, and a stuffed fox at his house and was willing to share!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Sorting, measuring, drawing, painting, parading, dog mushing, slurping, exercising... lots of action going on this week!

In math we are learning about sorting by different characteristics: size, shape, count, weight, capacity, etc.  Here the kids are sorting and organizing our school supply bins in different ways!

Measuring and comparing capacity of containers was so much fun!  Try this experiment at home.  Get a skinny tall container and a larger, wide, short container, and ask your kinder which has the greater capacity.  They will pick the tall one almost every time.  Then have them do the experiment to see which can hold more water.  It is fun to watch them be amazed!

Our school participated in Alaska's PLAAY Day ... a synchronized physical activity event for schools around Alaska.  We had fun learning exercises and working out in the gym while we watched other classes online doing the exact same thing all over Alaska!

Our class got our first introduction to the new STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) room this week!  Mrs. Lee did a lesson on drawing aliens to go along with our space unit!

You can see our final projects up in the hallway by the lunchroom!

As we are finishing up our science unit on space we did some other fun space projects this week as well... including chalk rubbing planets, constellation viewer cans, and learning about constellations and writing our own constellation stories!  Make sure to remind your kinder to look up at the stars! (We won't see them for much longer this year!!!).  Also, Moon Journals are due this week...  I have special Moon Pies for kids who turn them in!  They don't have to be completed every day... just so that your child spent some time observing how the moon has changed this month!

The Idita-Read contest continues!  Remember to log all of your kinder's reading minutes, including the ones you do for their blue slip every night, on their reading log.  Every minute counts!  As a part of our contest, we had an event with Mrs. Sara Richards, our new librarian.  She taught the kids about dog sleds and they got a chance to be a dog team, pulling their teachers!  

And finally, the big event of the week was celebrating Chinese New Year!  We had so much fun learning about some traditions related to this holiday, and sharing them with the whole school in our dragon parade! Thanks to Alexa Peet for creating our amazing dragon head and letting the kids help paint it!  Check out the video on the Tok School FB page!

We paraded with noisemakers all around the school scaring away the bad luck and bringing in the good!  We also enjoyed a traditional meal for Chinese New Year, of LOOOONG noodles for a LOOOONG life, and SWEET oranges for a SWEET life!  We got some chopstick lessons from Alexa, and had a hilarious time trying to eat our noodles!

The kids each made their own fire breathing dragons to celebrate as well!

This week we are celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday!  Here are the dress up days for the week.  We also have some other events planned, including a birthday party and reader's theater on Friday at 1:00 that you are invited to attend.  You may also join us for green eggs and ham lunch in the cafeteria before the party, beginning at 12:10.  Stay tuned for an invitation coming home soon!!!