Monday, April 30, 2012

Earth Day and Plants!

This week we learned all about our Earth and why it is important that we take care of it.  We also began our study of plants.  But first, I wanted to share a few pictures from our field trip!  On Monday we went to Kenan Auditorium at UNCW to see an operatic production of Cinderella.  Here are some pictures from our trip.


On Monday, we began talking about Earth Day.  We read this great poem and discussed why it is important that we take care of the Earth.  


Then we made some coffee filter Earths.  We colored them with markers and then wet them.  They turned out great!  


On Tuesday, we had Earth Day rotations in the afternoon.  Ayla's Dad came and spoke to us about the importance of keeping our oceans and rivers clean.  




In another room we read a fun book (made from recycled materials) about things we can do to help the Earth.  Then, we split up and made posters to help spread the word.




In Mrs. Karnes' class, we had a speaker from Progressive Gardens talk to us about composting.  We learned so much!  We got to see inside a compost bin and we even got to pick up the worms!  Eww!  





On Wednesday, we began talking about plants and how they grow.  
We made a Plants schema chart.  This is a picture of it from the end of the week.  We will continue to add to it next week.  


We read Lois Ehlert's book, "Growing Vegetable Soup" and used a flow map to sequence the events.  



In writing, we did some "how to" writing.  We wrote about how to grow a vegetable.  



We read a nonfiction book about seeds and recorded our new learning.  



On Friday, we planted some seeds!  We made glove gardens!  We put water soaked cotton balls and a seed in each finger of the glove.  



We hung them on the window so that they could get plenty of sunlight over the weekend.  



When we came back Monday morning, we had a few roots and little sprouts! 
We were so excited!



Next week we will continue our study of plants!  






Saturday, April 21, 2012

Fun on the Farm!

Before I share about our fun on the farm, here is a picture from our big performance Tuesday night!  They were so excited and did a wonderful job!  I wasn't able to take pictures during the performance, so if you have any, please share!  :)  


This week our learning focused around farms and farm animals.  We began our study by brainstorming what we knew about farms.  During writing we read nonfiction books about farm animals and filled in tree maps.  We used the tree maps to help us write sentences about each animal.  I forgot to take pictures of the books they worked so hard on, but I am sure they shared them with you all!  


In shared reading we read classic farm tales like "The Little Red Hen" and "Mrs. Wishy Washy".  We focused on retelling and sequencing events.  After reading "The Little Red Hen" we used story props to retell the story.  We also filled out a story map.  Here are some pictures from our retelling.  They did a great job!  



On Friday during math, we took a break from our fact families and graphed our favorite farm animals.  Here is the graph and recording sheet we completed.  Horses definitely won!  




On Friday, we learned about cows and all the things they give us.  To end our week of farm animal fun, we made ice cream!  Thanks to Deanna Jump for this great recipe!  
First we had to mix all of our ingredients together.  We mixed sugar, vanilla, vanilla pudding, evaporated milk, and milk together.  We talked about liquids and the properties of a liquid.  


Next, we put a little bit of our mixture into a ziploc bag.  We put that bag into a gallon sized bag with salt and ice in it.  Then we shook it.  And boy did they shake it!  





After just a few minutes, our liquid mixture had turned into ice cream!  Yum!  








We had so much fun this week learning about farms and farm animals.  Next week we will learn about Earth Day and vegetables!  
We also have our Cinderella field trip on Monday!  I can't wait! 






Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Fire Station Field Trip!

Here are some pictures from our trip to the fire station!  We had so much fun and learned a lot!  
Enjoy! :)


























Check out our future firemen and fireladies!  :)