The Milk Makers

This week we wrapped up our farm unit with a more in depth study of cows--those wonderful creatures who make sure we have milk, butter, cheese, yogurt, and tons of other yummy dairy products!

We learned lots of really cool information about cows this week, but we also had a little fun with some of Doreen Cronin's cows in Click Clack Moo Cows That Type.

We read several of Doreen Cronin's books about Farmer Brown and his silly animals, and the kids LOVED them!!  These books are fun and light hearted.  It is easy for children to spot similarities and differences within the books, and there is humor blatant enough for your Kindergarten kiddo and subtle enough to put a smile on your grown up face.  I would highly recommend looking for some of these great titles (really all of her books are fun reads) the next time you are at the library or book store:

Click, Clack Moo Cows That Type

Giggle, Giggle, Quack

Thump, Quack, Moo

Dooby, Dooby, Moo

Click, Clack, Peep

Click, Clack, Surprise  

(This one is brand new, and not on my self yet.  If you find it, let me know what you think.)

We loved the silly antics of the characters in Doreen Cronin's books, but most of our time this week was devoted to exploring some "teaching" texts about cows.  We learned lots of interesting facts and created teaching books of our own!  Your kiddos did a GREAT job putting their ideas down on paper, and almost everyone created a book with a great cover, title, and at least three pages of information!!  I think that's pretty impressive for 7 weeks into Kindergarten!

After hearing all this great information about cows and how they give milk, I thought that it was only appropriate that we gain a little practical knowledge about milking.  So, I made us a cow, we named her Stara, and then we milked her!

 

After milking, I posed the following:
We now have milk, a liquid.  How do you think we can turn this liquid into a solid?

After learning more about the states of matter this week, almost everyone felt like the only logical solution was to freeze it.  When I told them no freezing was involved, they thought it was impossible. When I told them we were going to shake our way to a solid, they thought I was absolutely crazy!!  But we shook it high, we shook it low, we shook it shook it to and fro.  We shook it here, we shook it there, we shook it shook it everywhere.  We shook it up, we shook it down, we shook it shook it all around. 

We shook it over.  We shook it under.  We shook it 'til we made some butter!

And we found out that a little homemade butter with Ritz crackers was the perfect post cow-milking snack!

Mud, Mud, LOVELY Mud!!

Last week was full of Mrs. Wishy Washy fun!

 

Mrs. Wishy Washy is the creation of author Joy Cowley, and we loved reading about Mrs. Wishy Washy and all her animals' muddy adventures.  We were able to discuss and compare the characters, setting, and events of each story. Then we made our favorite characters, complete with an old tin tub for a good scrub! 

After reading about all that "lovely mud" we just had to make some of our own!  We took a brown, chocolatey smelling powder--that we finally decided was a solid even though you can pour it--and added a lovely liquid--milk--to make some mud of our own!  

 

The jury's still out on whether or not our mud was a solid or a liquid--maybe you and your family could make your own mud to investigate the matter a little further!  :)

We also made a few little pigs using circles, triangles, and rectangles, and they were just begging for some of that lovely mud!  (Sorry--no pictures!  Sometimes you're having so much fun, there's no time for the camera!)

Then, after watching Mrs. Wishy Washy's animals spend so much time getting a scrub in the old tin tub on Mrs. Wishy Washy's farm, we used aluminum foil to make our own tubs.  We had to engineer a tub that would be able to hold water for the animals' baths--no leaks!  

 

 

 

 

Finally, like the animals, we gave in to the temptation of MUD--we just ate ours!  (Don't worry it was just chocolate pudding!)

 

 

Here are a few links to some of the stories we have been reading at school.  It's hard to get your hands on a lot of Joy Cowley's Mrs. Wishy Washy books, but if you happen to run across one, grab it up!  These books are perfect "read together" books--they have rhythm and rhyme, repeated text, and there's not a ton of words per page.  

Mrs. Wishy Washy

Mrs. Wishy Washy and the Big Wash

And...if you would like a little Wishy Washy dance fun, check out The Wishy Washy Washer Woman!

Fire Safety Week

Kindergarten students had the opportunity to participate in a fire safety program provided by the Oconee County Fire Department this morning.  We were able to go into the fire safety house and practice staying low and getting out during a fire.  We got to see a fire fighter in all his gear and practice using our loud voices to let him know our location during an emergency.  And...we got to see the fire truck and all it's gear! 

Be sure to talk to your child about fire safety this week, check your smoke detectors, and develop an escape route and meeting place at your home!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy week!  

Farmyard Fun!

We have been hard at work learning about all the things you might see on the farm!

We have read books, watched videos, sang songs, and even did a little research about the farm over the past two weeks!

Here are a few links to bring the farm into your home!

Down on Grandpa's Farm

Old MacDonald Had A Farm

The Animal Sounds Song

Last week after listening to, reading about, and singing Old MacDonald's Farm, we tried our hand at some farm building ourselves!  Students used different types of blocks and shapes to create farms for their animals!  Everyone had some great ideas, and best of all we saw a lot of team work!

We also spent a lot of time exploring The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown.

Children love the rhythm and rhymes in this well loved children's book, and the author does lots of great stuff that we can learn from as writers!  

There were lots of animals in the The Big Red Barn, so we decided to make a few of our own!

After making our animals, we used the iPads to do a little research about our animals and create sentences to tell our readers what we had learned.

You can do some on-line research of your own using Pebble-Go!  This site is very kid friendly and packed with lots of great information!  Username:  colham   Password:  ferry

We also made a really special graph to show some of our favorite farm animals!

Be ready for more fun on the farm with Mrs. Wishy Washy this week!

Better Late Than Never!

Sorry about the late post!!  We have been trying to fight the germs at my house, but I think the germs are winning!

First of all, thank you to everyone who accepted and commented on our reading challenge!  It was fun to see what everyone was reading, rediscover some old favorites, and get some new ideas.  Ms. Still and Mr. McCullers even got in on the fun talking about some of their children's favorite books!  If you haven't checked out their comments, take a minute to check it out.

Last week was pretty special in that we introduced our first reading strategy and did some independent reading for the first time!  Children were more than excited to become "readers," and this teacher was more than proud to watch them learn to see themselves that way!

 

We also continued to practice numbers, counting, and shapes.

 

We went looking just like Bill Martin, Jr. and were able to see some hexagon goldfish!

And...probably yummiest of all, we made some Brown Bear Bread!  Yay for nutella!!