U. S. Symbols

U.S. Symbols is one of my favorite units to teach.  The kids are so enthusiastic to learn about our country!  We complete fun, age appropriate activities.   I show a powerpoint on U.S. Symbols, as well as a video from Discovery Education.  I also have a book on each symbol.  For extra fun, I have pictures of myself at the Statue of Liberty and Liberty Bell! The kids especially get a kick out of my 1990's (big) hair and glasses at Liberty Island.

Stir sticks make great flag poles!

Two students INSISTED they saw a bald eagle at recess this week.  

     It was VERY exciting. They said it was just like the eagle they colored 

     in class!  Considering we do live in Eagle, Idaho, it was possible (but 

not likely).  It was later confirmed by a teacher on duty that it 

was a hawk!  No, I did not tell them the truth.  Lol.

After making these hats, the students got out the Legos
  and made the torch and tablet. They did this completely
on their own.  This is why I allow time for my students
to PLAY in my classroom.    

Penguins!

We had so much fun learning about penguins this month!

Every morning we read this poem and waddled the
correct direction.

After reading many non-fiction books, we completed this fact chart together.  I made

sure to include facts to choose from that were not true.

We used this fact chart to help us write booklets about penguins.  This is the first time I have ever attempted this much writing in February!  The students were thrilled.  First I gave a few guided drawing lessons on penguins.  For two days we wrote pages for our books.  On the the third day, the students illustrated the front cover.  These turned out so well I had planned on putting them out at Open House.  However, the students were so excited about their books they wanted to take them home to share immediately!

I love writing in Kindergarten because it is such a great opportunity for differentiation.  This is from a high student who used one of our non-fiction books to find some facts that were not on our chart:

 Here is the book from the same student I featured in my post about Kid Writing.  Her confidence keeps building!

We also had some fun, hands on experiences learning about penguins. To show that penguin feathers are oily and repel water, I put vegetable oil in blue (ocean) water.  It was a great visual!

 Next, I made a blubber glove (made with Crisco and Ziploc bags).  The students put their hand in ice water. Then they put on the blubber glove and put it in the ice water again. 

To find out what it felt like to be a daddy penguin with an egg on it's feet, we tried to waddle with a squishy ball between our ankles.