Teddy Bear Picnic and Valentine's Day!

There was lots to love in Kindergarten last week!  

We kicked off the week with Valentine's Day!  Everyone loved sharing their valentines with their friends and using our teddy bear bags we made at Fun Friday to hold all their special treats!

We hope you enjoyed your special valentines, too!

The rest of the week was devoted to Don Freeman, his character Corduroy, and all things teddy bears!

First we read about Corduroy for a little inspiration.

Then we participated in a Corduroy themed STEM challenge!  We imagined what type of container Corduroy might need to hold ten extra buttons--just in case he lost another one.  Students had to construct their container to survive a 10 second shake test.

                                         

                                 

                                          

                                          

After construction, we began the shake test.  We used the numbernof buttons that fell out of the containers to determine the number of buttons left inside.  Here's how it all shook out!

                                  

All that shaking made us a little hungry, so it was time for a teddy bear snack!  Our teddy bear biscuits were YUMMY--especially with a little honey!

                                             

 And of course we couldn't do teddy bear week without making our own teddy bears!

                                         

It wasn't Build-A-Bear, but it was still a lot of fun!

                                         

Next it was time to do what we do best--WRITE!  Apparently teddy bears are the best sort of inspiration!   

                               

                               

Then it was time to picnic!

What Do You Know About Polar Animals?

After learning about about Tacky and his companions in their nice icy land, we read Life in the Polar Regions to learn a little bit more about polar animals, their food, and their habitat.

After looking at Pebble-Go, we decided to learn more about walruses, beluga whales, puffins, arctic foxes, penguins, and polar bears.

We used iPads to research our animals, and then we recorded our information in our Polar Research Journals.

We worked hard all week and completed our research journals on Friday--then it was time for the fun part!  

We worked together in small groups to create art work that would show others how our animals look, where they live, and what they need to survive.  They were AMAZING!

After we completed all our artwork, we connected to our world map in hallway to show people where our animals live and how they meet their needs.

When researching our polar animals, we found that most of them have blubber to help keep them warm in their cold polar habitats.  So, we decided to investigate blubber a little further.  We created some "polar water" by filling a container with water and ice.  We tried putting our hands in the polar water and found it was COLD!!  Then we used the thermometer to check the temperature of our "polar water."

  

Next, we used Crisco to make a "blubber glove."  That polar water felt much better with our hands in the "blubber glove!"  After using our thermometer, we found out that it was almost 30 degrees warmer inside the blubber glove than in the "polar water!"  Pretty amazing-huh?

If you and your kiddo would like to learn more about polar animals, you can always check out pebblego.com (user name:  colham   password:  ferry) or any of the links below!

Penguins

Polar Bears

Walrus

Seals

Narwhals

Or check out the webcams at the Georgia Aquarium!

TACKY!!

This week has been a celebration of all things TACKY!!

We started the week with one of my all time favorite characters--Tacky!  Helen Lester has created lots of stories about this odd bird and we enjoyed almost all of them!

There are a few we haven't tried yet!

Let me know if you and your family read any of these books!  I am always looking for new books to add to my classroom library! 

After first reading about Tacky, we decided that maybe Tacky needed to read some teaching books to help him learn how to do things like the other penguins in the Nice Icy Land.  So we wrote some "how tos" teaching Tacky how to do everything from walking in a straight line to diving in the pool to doing ballet to shooting a target!  

Next we spent a lot of time looking at lots of different Tacky books.  We took time to look at the characters, setting, problem, and solution in each book.  We looked for all the ways the books were the same and different.

After looking at some many of Helen Lester's books, we decided to try be authors just like her.  So, we used our imaginations and one of her silliest characters, Tacky, and created some stories of our own.  (Our tacky attire only served as more inspiration!)

Then we made our own Tacky to go with our stories.

And everyone accepted the challenge to construct Tacky with cubes or pattern blocks!

And while most of the week was dedicated to the imaginary bird Tacky, we also began learning about real penguins.  Did you know that male emperor penguins keep their eggs safe and warm on their feet for almost three months without letting the egg touch the ice?  

We tried our hand--or our feet rather--at keeping keeping our eggs safe on our feet while waddling down the hallway.

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It's not quite as easy as it looks!

We kept track of how far each little penguin waddled, and some of them waddled over 60 inches!

We couldn't end with week without a treat, so we made some chocolate covered marshmallow penguins!

See if your child can tell you about how we used solids, liquids, and reversible changes to create this yummy penguin treat.

Looking for a penguin themed BrainBreak?  Check out the link below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He5Xu11HBkM