Groundhog Day!

Hey Science Friends,

Well, it is about a week until February 2. It is hard to believe that time has passed this quickly. So this week is the prime time to talk about the weather in class. If I could wish I would wish for some spring weather if we are not going to get any snow. I guess we will have to see what the groundhog has to say on the big day.

This coming week we are going to have a little fun before we hear if the groundhog sees his shadow or not. Either way, we are sure going to have a little groundhog fun before the day.

Part of the fun of the week will be reading all of the books that go along with it. Much to my surprise I have found quite a few books on the subject. And when you mix these books in with books about the weather, you have a lot of books to add to any Science center.

Our Science objectives include observing and describing the daily weather. We do that each day and on Wednesday we have Weather Wednesday. So, this will make a welcome little addition to spice up what we already do each day. Not only are we going to observe and describe the weather, we are going to predict, report and graph the weather too. We are making some weather headbands to get us geared up for these special reports.

We will be taking some surveys and asking...

Will we have six more weeks of winter weather?

Some of us want a little more winter but not all of us! I guess we will find out what kind of weather we want to see. It will give us a chance to look at the results, discuss the results of the surveys and find out what kind of weather we want the most or least.

We are going to sort seasonal things into the categories of spring and winter. My class loves sorting especially if it is a cut and paste sort that goes in our notebooks. And because they love sorting, I made them another sort to review living and non living. During this unit we also review basic needs.

 

The kids will also be excited to add illustrations to their new weather book. We are even going to do some labeling because we love labeling just about anything. We are labeling animal parts of the groundhog. When we finish reading and researching groundhogs we will be ready to write some groundhog reports. The kids are always amazed that when we put our research projects together and finally display them. All in all, I think we are ready for some groundhog fun but I couldn't leave it at that...

Because anybody knows that any good Scientist is good in math so I had to make some printables to go in our math boxes to support our current math focus. I know the kids will be excited to dig in to these printables and games. And I can't wait for some number talks with Ten Grouchy Groundhogs!

For more information click on the image above!

 



Feeling Froggy!



 

Hey Science Friends,

We are feeling a little froggy lately. We can't help it. We just can't! After investigating pond water and school water we just could not resist talking about frogs. We just love them. I found this picture on Sense of Wonder and it just made me want to make a light table for some fun investigations. My mind keeps coming up with all the wonderful investigative ideas we could do with a light investigation table. It is on my spring "to do" list for sure.

 

I was able to find these plastic life cycle models for my classroom on Amazon for a pretty decent price. These would go well on a light table or in a water table for some fun investigations. And if you are near a Dollar Tree they have plastic colored frogs and bags of rocks that would work well in a water table. I know my kids would love those too because we now know frogs are not always green!

 

 

We naturally were curious about the life cycle of frogs since we are working on some writing research in Language Arts and many children decided on the topic of frogs after we did some pond investigations about water clarity! So I created this for my class to help with their research writing that we are still working on.

 

A few water samples from around town and we are well on our way to observing and describing natural sources of water. And I knew just a soon as we were well on our way to taking a real close look at pond water that it would make us just want to know more about ponds and the life we see living inside a pond. So, I headed to my go-to place for books...Amazon!

  

 

Life in the Pond is one of the best books that I have found and it is perfect for some pond research for a budding scientist.  

 

 

I am waiting on the arrival of Pond Circle. I was drawn to this book because a young girl investigates a simple backyard pond and discovers a world of activity!

 

 

Turtle Splash is a new favorite of mine because it is a pond countdown book and it is a wonderful book to use with Number Talks in Kindergarten. This book really inspired us and made us want to create some pond counting books of our own. So, we are working on that this coming week. 

 

 

I am waiting on Pond Babies to arrive. I am a huge fan of Cathryn Falwell books so I had to add this to our collection. I love the theme of exploring the natural world that this book portrays. You know there is a scientist in all of us as we explore, discover and investigate the world around us. So, if you are looking around for some books you might want to consider Scoot by Cathryn Falwell too!

  

 

 And since we are looking at ponds you know we need to label one!

 

 

 

All my favorite Kindergarten teachers tell me A Frog Thing is a must have book. Who doesn't love frogs? And I just can't wait to read A Frog Thing... I am looking forward to ending the week with this inspiring book!

 

Hoppy Days Science Friends!