halloween party!
click on the VIEW SHOW button above to see a little slide show of some of our halloween photos!
picking pumpkin seeds out of the pumpkin “guts”…making crazy noodle-bone skeletons…watching “The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”…having so much spooky fun!
miscellany and silliness! | Comment (0)Autumn Nature Walk
Even in the midst of the city, a nature walk around the block can be made into quite the event.
I give the students tiny little dixie cups to collect nature “treasures” and we talk about what we might find before we go outside collecting. We stick together and stay away from the street as we explore our block. My only collecting rules are that they have to be natural finds (no garbage or rubber bands, etc.) and that the item must fit in the cup. Seeds, leaves, rocks, mosses, twigs, bark, etc. are usually the order of the day–as always, we found lots of specimens–sweet peas in dried seed pods, tiny flowers still blooming, ginkgo leaves, and three different types of moss in the sidewalk cracks.
Children come in and dump out their haul, using hand lenses to see more details. They get pretty excited about their finds and we do a lot of, “turn and tell your neighbor” things–most interesting, smallest, most colorful, etc.
Our art tie-in was a leaf-rubbing wax resist, painted with water paint.
Storytime was “The Tiny Seed” by Eric Carle, which is wonderful and apropos.
science | Comments (6)“Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude”
First off, I love this book. I have adapted it into a play and done it with kids for camp. I have used it with younger kids and older kids…it works in so many ways, on so many different levels. A great language arts tie-in for older grades is to have them write “partner stories”–use this book as a model for how two people can go back and forth creating a story, and then compromise to reach an ending.
I use this “funny fairytale” week for some great hands-on science. We make “frog slime” and “magic potion”…here are the recipes and instructions. It is really important to remember to talk safety before you do this and also to look for those “teachable moments”–these experiements are visually stunning and really help kids get excited about being magical scientists!
FROG SLIME (great way to see if two liquids can combine to form a solid):
DO NOT EAT! KEEP AWAY FROM HAIR/FUR/CARPET!
Brew #1: Mix 2 Tbs. Borax with 1 cup warm water. Pass around the table having children do 1-2-3-stirs and pass it on!
Brew #2: In separate dish, mix 1 cup Elmers Glue with 2 drops of food coloring and ½ cup warm water. Pass around the table having children do 1-2-3-stirs and pass it on!
Pour Brew #1 into Brew #2—do not stir. Gently slosh side to side for 30 seconds. (I have the kids tap their fingers on the bowl and say magic words like “sham-a-lam-a-ding-dong!”
Reach into the bowl and pull upward dramatically! Ta-da! Slime! Tear off small chunks to share with all. Knead out excess water & it becomes like silly putty! You can stretch it, roll it, bounce it, etc. Great to send home in Ziploc baggies with instructions.
MAGIC POTION:
Get two small cups and a plate or shallow bowl. In cup 1, pour a small amount of vinegar (about an inch or two), squirt in some liquid dish soap, and one or two drops of food coloring. Swirl gently to mix. Model this to students and let each do their own.
In cup 2, put two teaspoons of baking soda. Set cup 2 on the plate or bowl—this will get messy. Have students hold up Cup 1 and make a magical “toast”—1-2-3-POUR CUP ONE INTO CUP TWO (or liquid into solid)…
Your students will delight as they watch the foam magically appear! Smaller cups work better because then the foam can cascade over the edge and down the sides. They can feel the foam and comment on what they see, smell, and feel. I usually have them play with this for a few minutes, and then we all make a “giant” potion by pouring our liquid into one big clean-up bowl.
“The Jolly Postman”
For the Senior Kindergarten classes, I do a language arts theme around the book, “The Jolly Postman” by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. For those who have never read this charming book, it is a book made up of “envelopes”, “letters”, “advertisements”, and other “mail” which help to tell the story of a jolly postman who delivers letters to characters out of fairytales.
This book is a great introduction to the many different ways we can express ourselves through written and pictoral language. The children LOVE pulling out the “mail” from the envelope-pages and helping me “read” it. They are just at the age where they are beginning to understand that letters symbolically represent words, and that words can tell a story. When we are finished reading the book, we create our own tiny little books using the nifty kirigami fold below:
Before making our books, we brainstorm together some ideas for themes. Each child gets their own idea in their head first, and then begins to create after that. This helps them have a specific direction they want to work toward, for example, one child made a Star Wars book, one made a soccer book, one used invented spelling, one wanted to see the words written out to copy them exactly. Each is proud of their creation, and excited for their families to see the super-surprise mail that comes!
We decorate our envelopes, put an address label and stamp on, slide our tiny books in, and seal the envelopes shut. Children are VERY curious how this will go into the mailbox in Old Town, yet somehow arrive at their own house in a few days. We estimate how many days we think it will take. And then we walk en masse to the mailbox to send our treasure on its way!
