Exploring The Science of Santa's Favorite Season!

 

Happy Days Science Friends,

Don't you just love this time of year? Sometimes it is hard to concentrate with all of the holiday buzz going on but we have found a way to keep the fun and learning moving right along. And we sure have had some fun! This week we were busy learning the Science of Santa's Favorite Season! We were able to get our hands on a small little live Christmas tree that provided us with some great hands-on exploration and investigation which lead to some great notebooking as we learned about plant parts.

 

 

 

We even had some fun reviewing Path of Motion Vocabulary with some integrated art. I was so proud that every single child remembered every single path of motion term and movement even before we did this activity. I guess we learned a lot and it stuck with us from our I Can Be a Scientist Exploring Force and Motion Unit!

 

 

Marbles have been a staple for us in science this year. I think we have used them for just about everything and then some... After exploring toys I think WE might be the toy experts instead of Santa. We can describe them, investigate them, discuss how they move and more! Santa really has nothing on my Science Friends!

 

 

I was told we HAD to teach Science this time of year BUT you didn't tell us it couldn't be a whole lot of fun!

 

Table of Contents: 12 Different Holiday Themed Hands-On Independent Investigations with Recording Pages/2 Conceptual Big Books/3 Conceptual Emergent Readers and so much more! Options for building your own unique journals/notebooks to fit your classroom needs!

3 Holiday Themed Basic Needs Colored Posters
Classroom Pictures and Instructions
4 Page Living and Non Living Sorting Cards (print on colored cardstock)
We All Have Wants and Needs Sorting Page
We All Have Wants and Needs Sorting Cards
Describing Properties of An Object Teaching Poster Holiday Themed
Describing Properties of a Christmas Tree Recording Page
Describing Properties of a Poinsettia Recording Page
4 Parts of Animal/Plant Holiday Themed Teaching Poster Colored
5 Blackline Printables Label It! 2 Santa, Rudolph, Christmas Tree & Poinsettia
1 Colored Are You Ready Santa? Conceptual (Ordinals) Teacher Big Book
1 Blackline printable Are You Ready Santa? Student Books
1 Blackline printable 10 Little Presents Student Books
1 Balckline Light Graph/Survey
1 Blackline Printable Let There Be Light! Sorting Cards
1 Blackline Printable Let There Be Light! Sorting Mat
1 Blackline Printable We Have Lights! Student Book
2 Blackline Printable Notebook/Journal Covers
7 Blackline Printable Toy Investigation Recording Pages/Notebook Insert
3 Blackline Printable Magnet Investigation Recording Pages/Notebook Insert
3 Blackline Printable Toys In Motion Investigation Recording Pages/Notebook Insert
Classroom Pictures and Instructions For Path of Motion Painted Christmas Trees
1 Blackline Printable Which Toy Do You Like Best?
1 Blackline Printable Santa’s Hot Chocolate Report
1 Blackline Printable Santa’s Candy Cane Report
1 Colored Conceptual Teacher Big Book Santa Can Go! Path of Motion Vocabulary
1 Colored Conceptual Teacher Big Book Where Is Santa? Positional Vocabulary
1 Conceptual Teacher Big Book Where Is The Gingerbread Man? Positional Vocabulary
2 BONUS Blackline Printable Santa’s Ten Frame Fun Pages

 

Integrated Science

As the holidays approach, I still try to find ways to incorporate Science into the classroom. I don't want Science to be forgotten in the midst of all the holiday fun. Science can still take place even while we are talking about the holiday season. 

This is a neat story about a family's Christmas tradition. Every year, they troop out into the forest to decorate their night tree, a living pine Christmas tree. The night tree is festooned with edible decorations. After the family enjoys the magic of the decorated tree, they depart, knowing that the friendly critters who inhabit the woods will enjoy the decorations as a Christmas time snack. The book introduces an interesting family "tradition" and teaches the concept of tradition as well as doing for others (the gifts of food for the animals). It is a warm story that brings smiles to young faces. Book Review by Amazon

I think this would be a wonderful book to talk about family traditions for a little integrated Social Studies. For Science, this would be an excellent book to talk about the basic needs of animals and tie in the winter season. In our classroom we have been working on a Tree Homes Science unit and this would be a perfect review for us. To extend this discussion further, it would also be fun to make some bird feeders for the animals in winter. You could even hang the bird feeders in the trees at school and observe the animals throughout winter. I think this would be a wonderful Science Notebooking activity. 

Source: bystephanielynn.com via Little Miss Kindergarten on Pinterest

For years we made bird feeders with pine cones, peanut butter and bird seed but due to allergies we had to stop this activity. I have searched and search for other ways to make bird feeders for a couple of years and did not find exactly what I wanted.  When I saw this I was hooked. I think this would be simple and perfect for Kindergarten Scientists. You could use pipe cleaners instead of wire and the children could easily make them. I would love to incorporate counting into this activity. Additionally, the children could observe the tree and count to see how many pieces are missing.