A Forest Critter Gathering

 

 

It was a wonderful morning of creativity, learning, and fun!  The children (and their parents) made this teacher's heart very happy!  I love to see a unit of learning wrap up with a creative finale!  Just look at these costumes...

 

The fox

 



 

The woodbecker

 

The porcupine

 



 

The owl

 

The White Tailed Deer

 



 

And her cute deer friend

 



 

The bear

 



 

The raccoon

 



 

The bat

 



 

And his bat man

 

 

We learned about the importance of burrows, and created some of our own.  They also replicated animal tracks using Rice Krispie Treats, created a food web, and designed a new forest animal with the help of their classmates. 

 

 

 

What a fun morning our country critters had!

Teddy Bear Crimes:Studying DNA

 

 

Look at this bad bunch of suspects! They committed crimes all around our classroom. The students set the scenes, wrote about them with descriptive details, and then got busy solving a slew of crimes. They questioned, measured paw prints, analyzed fur, and looked for DNA matches. A fun and creative way to learn about how we each are unique.

Into the Forest We Go!

 

We started a unit on forest habitats this week.  Seems fitting since we are in the midst of fall around here.  We'll be learning about critters that live in the tree tops, on the ground, and even those that make their homes in the warm and cozy underground.  Monday we pretended to be raccoons going to a restaurant.  Students created a menu that consisted of invertebrates, vertebrates, and plants.  Did you know that raccoons have been known to wash their food before eating it?  Our little raccoons also washed fruits and vegetables, played a squirrel strategy game, and more.

Pumpkins, monsters, and science oh my!

It's always fun to mix learning with holidays.  This combination captures my creativity, and my students' attention.  We started off the week in Creative Academics with a morning of pumpkin science with my first graders.  We worked with our science buddies, to weigh, measure, and see if a pumpkin sinks or floats.  We learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin, which of course ends with pumpkin pie!  Many of my little pumpkins had never eaten pumpkin pie, and they were the first to say, "Can we have seconds?!"

 

 

By Wednesday or Cottage Classroom was in full Halloween spirit.  My third grade students filled their day with a Monster Mash.  They learned about mixtures and solutions as they made Monster Mix and Pumpkin Punch.

 

 

They visited the Monster Laboratory to make observations about noodle brains, grape eyeballs, and pumpkin guts.

 

 

Then they were off to the Monster Beauty Parlor with Beautician Ervin.

 

 

They used their creativity to make monsters out of recyclables. 

 

They painted pumkins, played monster design games, wrote about spooky poitions and more.  A day full of fun and learning, just what Creative Academics is all about!

 

Congratulations to all the Famous Pumpkin Contest participants.  You did a FABULOUS job!

 

Thank you families for sending in so many donations to make this a great day for the children!

 

Plant Cells

 

We've learned a lot about animal cells, but today we kicked off our exploration of plant cells by making a model.  Students were able to choose items from candy, to yarn, to rice to represent different organelles within a plant cell.  It was great to see their creativity at work.  I especially loved that no two student's plant cells looked the same.  They diagramed them, and justified their choices.  Fun with science!

Bats and Soil Samples

With Halloween just around the corner we went a little batty today!  We talked about fact vs. opinion when it came to bats.  Did you know that bats are the only mammal that can fly?  Our class brainstormed facts that we knew, and watched a video to learn some more.  We also discussed if we thought bats were cute or creepy.  Overwhelming our class opinion was cute.  What??  Owen and I were not persuaded, and we said creepy!  Students then analyzed and graphed the data.  We also practiced some oral direction skills, tracing to make double, and cutting.  Little things that will help us with projects throughout the year. 

 

Since we are still in the midst of our Living and Non-Living Things unit, we also talked about non-living things that make up ecosystems.  Today we focused on soil.  My soil scientists collected six samples from around school.  We charted and labeled the samples so that we could talk about similarities and differences.  Students decided that the soil from the vegetable garden would be the best for growing plants, and that the soil from the baseball field would be the worst!

Our Terrariums

On this lovely fall morning we headed outside to make our very own terrariums.  I love teaching about living and non-living things through these pint sized ecosystems.  I also love my pint sized scientists! 

 

They carefully filled their terrariums with living and non-living things like soil, rocks, plants, and oxygen. 

 

Oh and of course a dinosaur or two!