Noah's Ark

Our focus this week was Noah's Ark.  As a class we built and decorated our own ark for our bulletin board. We focused on the sequence of top, middle, and bottom. We started with the top tier, where Noah and his family stayed, and made people prints. Next, we made our middle level. The children worked in pairs to collage or color an animal for the ark. Then last, but not least, we decorated the bottom level, where they kept the garbage. We ripped newspaper and collaged, creating a messy bottom level.

We also played a matching game with pictures of different types of animals. The children took turns matching/pairing their animals to their friends’. Furthermore, we learned about different habitats of animals. We sorted animals and deciphered whether they live on a farm, in the jungle, or in a swamp. 

We also baked yummy animal shaped sugar cookies!

We continued Noah's ark and we discussed that it rained for forty days and forty nights. When Noah and his family finally exited the ark they saw a beautiful rainbow in the sky. In conjunction with the water of the flood, we did a wonderful science experiment. We filled a container with water, took one of our wooden blocks, and dropped it in the water. What happened? The block floated on top of the water! That is why Noah built his boat out of wood. We chose some other objects from around our classroom and we charted our predictions and results.

 This week we added raindrops to our Noah’s ark bulletin board. Each child decorated their own raindrops with their words; the children shared something nice that they can do for friends and family. We want to make sure we treat others nicely, just like Noah did.

                 

We also focused on colors. We learned that there are three primary colors; red, blue and yellow. We learned to create new colors we need to work with these three colors. As an experiment we decided to fill three empty glasses with water and add red, blue and yellow food coloring. We then used three more empty glasses for mixing. We discovered by mixing blue and yellow we create green, mixing blue and red creates purple and red and yellow creates orange.

Furthermore, we learned about rainbows and the colors of the rainbow. We then learned how rainbows are made. We read What Makes a Rainbow? by Betty Schwartz and did a science experiment, using a flashlight and a CD. We discussed that the sun (our flashlight) contains all of the color of the rainbow and when the sun passes through the water (the CD) the colors separate and we see a rainbow.   We first turned off our classroom lights, and then turned on the flashlight, and then the light refracted off the back of the CD in order to create a lovely rainbow.

We also baked yummy rainbow cupcakes and a beautiful rainbow cake!

 

 

Lastly, the end result of our bulletin board. 

 

Creation

Our next unit was Creation.

We began our focus on day 1. The separation between dark and light. As a fun activity we gave the children black and white finger paint and the let them mix the colors to explore the different shades they create when mixing. We also focused on opposites. We plated a matching game by matching pictures of dark/light, up/down, short/tall, etc. We additionally baked delicious black and white cookies.

For day 2, we read the book Little Cloud, by Eric Carle and talked about the separating of the sky and the water. We also learned about clouds and how they absorb water from the earth and then eventually produce rain. In order to make the concept more concrete we conducted a science experiment. We filled a container with water and blue food coloring and then dipped our cotton balls into the water and watched the cotton ball absorb the water, We then removed the cotton ball and squeezed, we watched as the water emptied out of the cotton ball (looking like rain). 

Next, on day 3, for the creation of grass, trees and flowers we made tree artwork and decided how many branches to use by rolling a die, identifying the number on the die and then counting out the appropriate number of branches. For day 4, creation of night and day, we  took out our class globe and discussed how the entire world does not get to see the bright sun or beautiful stars at the same time of day. The children learned that while some parts of earth are waking up and getting ready to start their busy day the other side of the world is getting ready for bed. To make this concept more concrete we lit a flashlight and spun the globe. The children were able to see that as the globe turned the flashlight stayed in one place, like the sun, and was not able to shine on all the parts of earth. Day 5, when creatures in the sky and water were created we discussed which creatures live where. For day 6, creation of animals and people we made a little animal collage. Through the week we created a place mat, sequencing the days of creation. 

an upside down version 

And, last but not least, for day 7, day of rest we celebrated a pajama day and enjoyed delicious chocolate chip pancakes!