What's Going on Here...

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Zoo...part 3!

Peacocks!
 I love how these turned out! This time of year the writing just reinforces our state DIBELS assessment we are doing this week, plus all the phonics and sight word work we've worked on all year. This is the time it ALL comes together-putting all this knowledge together to make a WONDERFUL keepsake!





All of my video segments are found on www.unitedstreaming.com. The site has most anything you could ever want!

 Zebras!
There is more science in this lesson than math. The fact for this page is something like, "A zebra's stripes are like my fingerprints. No two are the same." The math is the graph where we determine which type of fingerprint we have - arch, loop, whirl, or other (found in a Mailbox Magazine years ago). After looking at our fingerprints through a loupe to determine the pattern of our fingerprints, we save the cards to go on our fact page. 

 

While our zebra stripes are drying we read the book, How the Zebra Got His Stripes. We then look through some Zoo Books and Geo Kids magazines for zebra facts. We then complete our chart.
 Next, we work together to choose a fact which best describes our illustration. This is a great teaching moment of reinforcing how pictures give clues to the words. After we are all in agreement, we write the words together, finding our "star words" on the wall, and sounding out the other words. It's a great thing to watch when the kiddos no longer need me! I love that moment!
 HERE is a zebra video segment.

 Monkeys!



A monkey's tail is like a hand...enough said. HERE is a great video!

 Gorilla!
I found a copy of a gorilla's hand. The kiddos trace it then make a print of their hand to compare the size.

 Alligators!
The alligator has an "extra" set of eyelids - like swimming goggles. There is a GREAT video segment on United Streaming that gets really close so you can see the lid going up to cover the eye. COOL!


 Lions!
I got this great interchangeable spinner a few weeks ago. It is great for lots of things, but lately I've used it to determine which "star word" we'll use on our chart as we list facts we know about our animal of study. One child comes and spins, everyone of course YELLS the word, then I choose someone to complete the sentence using the word. It's just a little twist to mix things up a bit.



Lions sleep 20 hours each day! Lazy!! HERE is the video.
You could go on and on! Find YOUR fun facts and let me know what art work you come up with! 

6 comments:

  1. Your activities with the animals are so cute. I love the pirctures.
    Donna

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  2. Congrats on being named one of the best Kindergarten blogs!
    http://www.californiateachingcredential.org/kindergarten-teachers
    Donna
    www.kinderglynn.blogspot.com

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  3. Great ideas!

    www.littlemisskindergarten.blogspot.com

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  4. Love the monkeys! Any chance I could get a copy of the monkey pattern?
    Thanks,
    Martha-Carol
    mcarpenter@scsk12.org

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  5. These are wonderful projects! I love your fun ideas and I can tell you that anything Andy brought home like this is framed and up on the wall! Your blog is so fun!! Jen

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  6. Love these projects! We are planning to study Alligators next week & will definately being doing the one shown above! Also just joined your blog:)

    ReplyDelete