Dem Bones

My kinders loved learning about bones. Here are some of the ideas I found online (links below) and of course, a Fairy Dust idea!

 I love this idea from Dilly Dali.  

For instructions:   Cotton Swab Bones

This would be so great to build as a class.

Instructions at:  http://pickupsomecreativity.blogspot.com/

 Super easy plastic fork skeleton!

Instructions at:  http://jennwa.blogspot.com/

Super easy and cute q-tip skeleton!

Go to:  http://larremoreteachertips.blogspot.com/

I love this idea!  Pasta Skeleton!

Instructions at: http://familyfun.go.com/

Paint a life size skeleton!

Instructions at:  Fairy Dust Teaching!

 

Print out a toddler sized skeleton!

At:  http://totallytots.blogspot.com/2011/11/letter-xx-is-for-x-ray.html

Fictional Bears vs. Real Bears

One of the strong impulses of the Common Core Standards is the use of non-fiction reading.  When I work with the fairy tales like the Three Bears - I think it is a wonderful opportunity to compare real bears vs. the three bears.  We research bears by reading non-fiction books from the school library.  This integrates science into the curriculum in such a powerful way.

We make two habitats:  Real bears and The Three Bear's home out of paper bags


These sweet paper bag houses are from www.charlottesfancy.com.

Each child will make a Three Bear's house. To make the paper bag houses:

• Fill the lunch bags with newspaper. 
• Fold down the top.
• Pick a scrapbook or construction paper for roof.
• Fold over top and staple.
• Cut out windows, doors and other details from various papers.
• Use markers and crayons to add features.

How to make paper bag bear habitats:

• Method One: Teacher Prepared
• Method Two: Child made

We discuss the life cycle of the brown bear and important facts.  Again, to translate what we discuss and create - I provide a graph to document the children's understandings of fictional and real bears:


Click on graph to download both papers.



Another way of looking at the differences between real and fictional bears is with a sentence graph:


Click to download graph.
 
I like to put this on the smart board and fill it out with the class.  I use these graphs all year long. ( I eventually have the children writing sentences from them in the second semester. )   I read each sentence out loud after we are done filling it out.  ""Bears can hunt.  Bears can climb." etc.

Here is an example of one filled out:



I will fill the same graph out with the three bears to compare the differences.



Here is another little poster I made to help discuss the differences between real bears and their lives and the Three Bears fairy tale.

2 Easy Tree Habitats - Part 3

Ohh, these are so fun!  Here are my tree habitats with nests.

Here's how to make a simple nest:

 Wrap a piece of brown tissue paper around your thumb.

Glue with a glue stick.  Presto! A Nest!

Owl Habitat
Owls can live in tree trunks and tree holes.  They will make a nest.

 Draw paper owls and owlets.

Bird Habitat

Draw paper birds and eggs!

I ask the children to draw what the bird or owl eats and place it in their habitat.  This takes this to a story telling habitat that the children can tell their families the life cycle of a bird or owl or whatever!

Have fun!

3-D Trees - The Four Seasons (Part 2)

This article continues a series on 3-D habitats and science topics. To learn how to make a brown bag tree, please refer to Part 1.

Today, I am going to share how I use these simple bag trees to construct the four seasons.  You can have the children each make their own seasonal tree or make a large class tree out of a grocery sack and create a seasonal setting.

FALL TREE:  I prefer to use tissue paper as it is easy to tear and glue.  You can also use construction paper.

Apply torn tissue paper with Elmer's glue.  A Q-tip works well.  I tell the children to "dot" the branch with glue and press the tissue paper into the dot.

It is fun to leave a few torn tissues laying at the bottom of the fall tree!

SPRING TREE:  I love to purchase tissue paper on clearance.  Here I found a great tissue paper at Target that I used for the Spring Tree.  Again, just tear it!

To add the spring gesture - add a few blossoms in the tree.  I love the glorious blossoms on trees in spring!

SUMMER TREE: I use dark green tissue paper for the full lush of summer!

WINTER TREE:  Make up a batch of snow paint and you have a wonderful winter tree!

(Snow Paint:  in a Dixie cup, squirt one shot of shaving cream, add a squeeze of glue, and a squeeze of white paint.  Be careful to not add too much glue and paint!  Keep it fluffy!  Apply with a popsicle stick!)

COMMON CORE STANDARDS
FOCUS:  Non-Fiction Books - Informational text such as 

Watching the Seasons (Welcome Books: Watching Nature) by Edana Eckart

Possible application:
Students read text about the four seasons and then create a 3-D representation of their understanding.  Additionally, after creating the seasonal tree, the students could write about the season.

• Speaking & Listening Standard: Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas  
• Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.
• Language Art Standard: Vocabulary
• Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., use of vocabulary to describe and identify seasons through trees).
• Writing Standard: Text Types and Purposes
• Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book (e.g., My favorite season is . . .)

3-D Paper Habitats 101 - Part 1

There are three basic 3-dimensional techniques to have in your teaching toolbox.  These three habitat basics can be used to have children demonstrate their understandings of current science studies or character settings. Over the next week, I am going to share how to make these habitats.  On Friday I will cover how they can fulfill Common Core Standards.  Stay tuned for a rocking week!

Today I am going to show you how to make a basic paper bag tree.

 Begin with an open bag.  I glue it down on a paper plate for kindergarten.  Older grades will not need this support.

 Have the children cut half way down the bag to make the branches.  Tell the children to use their pinkies to measure how far apart to make the cuts.

 Next, twist the bottom of the bag to form the trunk.

 Twist each branch.  Older children can stop just before the end and cut the end into two more branches.

 Twist those two ends on each branch.

 Older grades, twist the bottom corners for roots.

 Glue to paper plate or other surface to begin creating habitat.  

Go ahead and grab a brown bag and try to make one!  If you have any questions - let me know because you will not want to miss tomorrow when I will show you how to make the four seasons with these trees!

Tuesday I will show you how to make animal habitats in these trees.  

Oh, how the possibilities are endless!!!!!

Volcanoes!

Start with all your old playdough!  Mix it together for that great swirly look!  (Or make a batch click here for recipe.)

You will also need a big ole piece of sidewalk chalk.

Place a handful of playdough on a plastic plate.

Push the chalk into the playdough to create a volcano shape.  Squish the sides into a nice volcano shape.  Leave that chalk there and let the playdough dry.  (Remove the chalk after a few hours so it will dry inside as well!)

 Once the volcano is dry (may take a few days!), you are ready to put a heaping tablespoon of baking soda into the center of that volcano.

 I prepare a cup of vinegar that I have colored with red food dye for each child.

We "explode" our volcanoes outside!  So much fun!  A kindergarten favorite!

Rock Insects

These make wonderful paper weights and could be great dad gifts!  We made these as a part of our insect unit.

Mexican Pebble Rocks make the best bugs! I found some of these wonderful stones at a landscape supplier. They are a nice size (palm size.)

I had the children begin by drawing their design in sharpie.  This is important for the painting step.

I had the children paint their rocks with acrylic paints.

We let the acrylic dry.  You can see the sharpie underneath the paint!

The details were added with paint pens.  So cute!

Flower Study

One of the last big projects I did with the children this year was a flower study.  We looked at the work of Georgia O'Keefe and how she painted her flowers to fill the entire canvas.  We noted three things that Georgia O'Keefe did:

     She painted the flowers to the edges of the canvas.
     She used just 3 to 4 main colors on the flower paintings.
     She painted a simple background.

FLOWER STUDY1
The main objective was to get the children to draw huge flowers.  I stressed that their flowers needed to touch each side of the paper.

 Drew the flower with pencil and traced it in a sharpie pen.  (Watercolor paper)

 I gave the children three colors - either a cool palette (blue, green and purple) or a warm palette (red, orange and yellow).  I simply cut the colors off the strip.

FLOWER STUDY 2
For this second study - we moved from watercolor to tempera paints.  The drawing was the same - but no sharpie!  I used a heavy cardstock paper and cheap foam brushes from Michaels.  Again - I put out a cool and warm palette.

I used a foam plate for the paint - perfect with three sections.

We finished with painting flowers on canvases using acrylics.  Unfortunately, I failed to take photos!!  But the end results were beautiful.  You can buy panel canvases from Dick Blick very reasonably and I used the dollar acrylic paint from Michaels.  Here is a peek at a photo a parent took: