The cool thing about this unit is that you may begin it in January with added pages on snow and ice and then continue it during March for Dr. Seuss' birthday using it with Green Eggs and Ham. The continuation into spring is easy with the additional pages on bubbles. I love it!
I plan on putting together some report pages on bubbles, snow and ice so that they may document their facts and observations learned. I will post when I finish them.
We have so many activities for Dr. Seuss in celebration of his birthday for Read Across America-here are just a few!
Of course, we read Cat in the Hat, Hop on Pop, ABC and many, many more but part of our main focus is Green Eggs and Ham.
We read the story, chart rhyming word pairs, talk about trying new foods, etc. Then we talk about how to make green eggs and ham. What do you need? What turns the eggs green? What happens first, second, last? Each child gets a recipe chart and a sentence strip. We read the simple text, talk about each step and start cutting. I wish I had better photos of this process but I don't! Each child cuts out the six pictures showing the sequence of steps. They number each picture and glue them on their sentence strip in the correct order. They now have their own recipe to take home for green eggs and ham!
First, the children has to read the recipe out loud, step by step so we can make our own green eggs and ham as a class! I heat up the electric skillet and each child gets to take a turn cracking their own egg into our bowl. They LOVE this part!
Some are nervous...
Some are excited!
Some just like posing with their egg!
Now the children have to walk me through these steps -reading their recipe cards- I beat the eggs with my green whisk 20 times. I add 20 small pieces of cheese, 20 small pieces of ham and 20 drops of green food coloring. (I had 20 students). The children count with me each time. NO one is fidgeting, out of their seat or goofing off, they are glued to this process!
I pour the mix into the skillet and s.l.o.w.l.y stir 20 times while we count together.
Can you say Y.U.M.M.Y?!
Before anyone gets their bowl, we make a prediction as to whether we will like the green eggs and ham or NOT .
They try their eggs and give me a thumbs up or thumbs down.
Most are excited they are eating something soooo exotic!!
Alright!!
After everyone has eaten, we then make a graph to chart how many liked the green eggs and ham and how many did not. I don't have a photo of our graph (darn!) but the majority liked them this year. Next year is another story...
Towards the end of our unit, our wonderful reading coach, Mrs. Yokley, puts together the Dr. Seuss Cafe for us to attend in the Library. Our librarian, Mrs. Barnett, gladly plays the part of the Cat in the Hat!
Here is Mrs. Yokley with students enjoying her hard work! Older students play host and servers. They escort the children to a table where the children choose from a menu of Dr. Seuss books. The servers then read the books to their table. The children are served multi colored goldfish crackers and have a chance to color a Dr. Seuss mask. They love every minute!!
Look at how the library is transformed by Mrs. Yokley, Mrs. Barnett and Mrs. Gautreaux into the Dr. Seuss Cafe!
This Mrs. Booker's class posing in front of the cafe-this photo goes into each child's Kindergarten Scrapbook-so sweet! What a wonderful experience! I have a section of my reading center that is dedicated to Dr. Seuss books and after this unit, the kids absolutely can not get enough of his books...which is the ultimate goal!
I LOVE this unit and I save it for the end of the year because it is so much fun! We talk about the world around us and how everything is made of matter.
We start by reading this book.
Then we chart what we think are liquids, gases and solids-this is usually pretty interesting and it isn't long before we have to deal with a bathroom joke followed by a reminder of good manners, staying focused, etc. you get the idea...
In order to demonstrate how molecules move within matter we spread out all over the room and move around freely without touching anyone else as we would if we were steam. Then we move a little closer -still, without touching as if we were water, moving a little more slowly. Last we squeeze in close to one another without moving at all as if we are ice. The kids love it! To demonstrate this concept on paper, we use stickers and a tri-fold piece of construction paper so that we can chart how close together or far apart molecules are for each form of matter. This is the first page of our Lab Book on LGS. I want to get white button down shirts from Goodwill-enough for the whole class-so that we may wear lab coats when we are conducting experiments or writing our lab reports. Fun! Our first experiment is the Rubber Egg Experiment. We want to find out how one form of matter may or may not affect another form of matter and record our findings. We talk about how a good scientist observes the world around him/her and how one thing affects another. Hmmmm... For this experiment each child gets a raw egg and a clear plastic cup filled halfway with white vinegar. Yes, I did say we were using raw eggs! For the two years that I have done this experiment with a class, I have not had one child break their egg. When I explain that they will only receive one egg and that is it-buddy, they don't fool around! We place the egg in the vinegar and each child takes a moment to observe what happens as their egg settles in the cup. Does it float? Are there bubbles? Do the bubbles go away? Then we talk about what we think will happen-we make predictions and chart them as a class. Next, we state our hypothesis and talk about how this is a very smart guess. They come up with some pretty insightful ideas-I am always surprised! The next day, they are so excited when they come in that morning that they make a beeline for the tubs with the cups-they can't wait to see how their egg has changed. I give everyone their own cup back and we take a moment and observe the changes that have taken place and then we chart them on the board. I will have a lab report for each child and we complete this whole group. Most of their hypotheses were accurate. The egg does appear to change color-the yolk is more easily seen through the softened eggshell. The egg is larger and when touched it has a soft, rubbery feel. Cool! So, the vinegar (a liquid) did change the egg (a solid) with some gas occurring when the egg meets the vinegar. Now we see if this is true with other LGS. We bring a small rock in from the playground after recess one day and place it in a cup of water. We have added a solid to a liquid. Guess what? Nothing. It is just a rock in some water. So then we wonder about other solids and liquids. I ask what they think will happen if we add something to a soda since it is a liquid with a gas IN it. Hmmmm. What if we add candy to a soda? What?????? Are you kidding? This is the glory of Kindergarten. Most people have heard of or even tried this experiment themselves but most five year olds have yet to experience this. So we go outside and after making predictions and a hypothesis we just do it. I add a roll of Mentos candy to a 2 liter bottle of cheap diet soda (less sticky) and stand back FAST. (Hence the goofy picture of me running backwards from the soda that you saw in my second post.) SPEWWWWW!!! I go ahead and repeat this two other times and then we vote on which bottle of soda spewed the highest. They LOVE this! I have got to bring a clean shirt next year...
We fill out our lab report with our findings and discover that when a certain solid meets a certain liquid with gas already present-stand back!
Okay, the very last phase of our LSG unit is our study of bubbles. We talk about how bubbles are a liquid that change shape when we add a gas (our breath) using a solid (a wand). We make wands out of pipe cleaners in different shapes because no matter what shape your wand is the bubble ALWAYS emerges as a sphere. We go outside and we make a mess! I have an assortment of dollar store bubble kits, wands, strawberry baskets, etc. for the children to experiment with in making bubbles. What fun.
I teach Kindergarten and LOVE it! I have an amazing team of teachers that I work with and we are constantly challenging ourselves to come up with fresh, new ways to motivate five year olds to reach as far as they can go! Kindergarteners are funny, full of energy
and ideas and very loving-they are some of my favorite people.
This is my seventh year teaching Kindergarten at Providence and I am very happy to be here.
I am married and have two exciting,
interesting daughters that keep us very busy. My husband, Greg was active
duty military for 23 years which means we have lived in many different places-Georgia,
California, Alaska, Washington and Florida but our favorite place to be is
Huntsville, Alabama! We are very happy to call this our home. Shanley is 20
and a Junior at Auburn University. Delaney is 17 and is in her Senior year of High School. They love to visit my
classroom when they can and get to know the kids they hear me talking about
all the time!
We like to camp, go to movies, visit family, read, go to church, travel and
play with our
two dogs-Bomber and Cracker. It's an exciting life and I'm happy to share it with you!
