All About Me (...Continued)

This week we continued our All About Me study and focused on our families. For a math activity we used unifix cubes to graph all of the members in our family. Whose family is the biggest and whose is the smallest?

We then constructed our own family trees. In order to fill our tree we labeled the tree’s leaves with all of our family members.

Furthermore, we discussed our individuality. Even though we have so many similarities we are all different and unique. For example, we each have a family, but our family structures are all different. To demonstrate our individuality we made fingerprints. Nobody’s fingerprints are the same! We used magnifying glasses to take a closer look to see how unique and one of a kind we really are. 

This week we enjoyed our science fair. We set up different stations around the classroom where we did various experiments with water. We decided to focus on water because we are in the middle of discussing our bodies and growing. Water is a very important factor in keeping our bodies healthy to help us grow. So, why not learn more about it? 

We did an absorption activity, experimenting with which objects absorbed water and which ones did not.

Use an eye dropper

 For another experiment we selected two colors, mixed them, and then discovered what those two colors would make! We then recorded our results by filling in our data sheet.

Then we had our penny experiment. We had three cups of water. The first cup was filled with tap water, the second was filled with soap water, and the third was filled with water and vinegar. Which cup do you think will clean the penny? 

                                             

For our last experiment we did a sink or float activity. The children predicted if they thought an object would sink in the water or float on top. The children marked their results on their charts indicating whether each objects is one that sinks or floats. What scientist we are! 

All About Me

This week we have begun our All About Me study. We began by reviewing our body parts. First, we listed all of the body parts that we could think of.  How many of each body part do we have? We focused on pairs. Many of our body parts are pairs. We have two legs, eyes, ears, etc. 

As a group we played a game with our friend “Mat Man.” He helped us learn the parts of our body and where they belong. Body part by body part, the children helped put “Mat Man” together so he would be whole once again. We assembled “Mat Man” by using various objects and shapes we found around the classroom. We then revisited “Mat Man” to help us draw our bodies. We illustrated portraits of ourselves, by drawing our bodies step by step and looking in a mirror to view our features, as well as our hair and eye colors. Then we labeled our body parts. We are quite the artists! 

We used our math skills by estimating how many blocks tall we each are and then we measured to see if our estimations were correct. We then drew out the amount of blocks tall that we are.

Tu B’Shvat

This week we focused our attention on the holiday of Tu B’Shvat, the birthday of the trees! We showed the children where New York is on the globe. We then explained to the children even though it is winter in New York and the trees do not have any leaves, on the other side of the world the sun is starting to warm up and it is becoming spring. We traced our fingers across the globe and showed them where Israel is. The children learned that in Israel people start planting trees and flowers start blooming. 

We talked about how trees, flowers and plants grow in the ground. They grow from seeds and grow roots underground and stems that come out of the ground. Trees and other plants need soil, water and sun to help it grow, just like water and food helps us grow. Tree and plants do not have mouths like us, so how do they drink water? As a fun science experiment we showed the children how celery drinks up water. We filled two different containers with water. In the first container we added red food coloring, while in the other one, we added blue food coloring. We then put in stalks of celery in each container and put them aside. When we came back to school the next day something had happened. The stalks of celery were not completely green anymore. One had turned a little red while the other one had become blue. The children were amazed! We showed the children the thin roots in the celery and explained to them how the celery drinks it up through the roots like long straws. 

 

We read The Giving Tree and discussed all of things that a tree provides for us, including: fruits, shade, paper, oxygen, and wood. 

The children also got the opportunity to plant this week. They painted their own flower pots and then added soil, seeds and water. We placed the flower pots on the window sill so that the flowers can get plenty of sun and we will be watching them grow. 

As a fun math activity we played a matching game with leaves and numbers. Each child got a leaf with a number written on it and had to match it to the number on the branches. Since we have twelve children in the class we counted to the number twelve. This activity helped teach the children number recognition and one to one correspondence.