River Exploration and Observation

I'm back!  I have missed being able to share our adventures in learning and exploring with you.  

Like I've said this school year our theme is Rivers and this quarter our projects are based on river systems and body systems.  

A few weeks ago we walked down to the river that is on the same property as our school.  Clipboards in hand the students were making observations and sketching and labeling what they saw.

We first had to make our way through the alfalfa field.  

*Did you know alfalfa is a nitrogen fixing plant and can be used in guilds?

The school can be seen in the background up on the hill, the hoop house is located on the playground.  We will be installing a drip system soon,

 as we just received a grant to fund the project!

Tyson, the horse, just had to get in on all of the excitement!  The other adult is Miss Erin.  She is my amazing partner teacher!

Students observed scat.  Helping us identify some of the local fauna.  The students guessed this belonged to the coyotes we heard one morning.

More evidence of local fauna... it appears to be the markings of some beavers hard at work!

We stopped to observe the pond and mini-wetland ecosystem. 

 It's quite abundant with biodiversity.  Nature at it's best!

Manure and some fungi, one of my favorite animal kingdoms!    

We made it to the river but stayed behind the fence for safety purposes.  

We headed back to the school house to talk about what we had observed.  On the way we passed the corn field and garden.    We added another observation the next day as we were all scratching the mosquito bites we endured in the name of science.  We can add them to the list of species inhabiting the river system!

Oviparous and Viviparous Animals, A Creative Movement/Yoga Sorting Activity {Freebie}

I have been invited to guest teach at a school near Santa Fe, New Mexico tomorrow.  I am currently visiting my husband in Santa Fe.   Can you believe it is snowing here in April?!  I am SO excited to guest teach!  I was asked to lead the children's yoga part of their morning routine.  I wanted to to integrate some science and reading skills into the lesson since I only get a half hour to teach my new friends!  This is what I came up with...


Firstly, I was inspired by this book that I just adore.  I don't think I'll have time to read it to them but I am going to take it with me just in case!

I am going to talk to the kiddos about oviparous and viviparous animals.  Oviparous animals are those that lay eggs that mature in their environment.  Viviparous animals give birth to live babies.  


I bought some plastic eggs and made little animal tags to go in each one.  Some of the animals are oviparous and others are viviparous.  Each student will take a turn cracking an egg and reading the animal to the class.  Then I will show them the yoga move for each animal.  You can do this with your class too.  Even if you don't know the yoga posture for each animal you can just let your students make up a silly movement for each animal.  They'll love it and movement is good for the heart!

After we do the yoga movement we will sort the animal into either the oviparous or viviparous container.  My new friends will get to practice classifying!


I found the containers, eggs and the basket at Joann'f for 50% off today!  
Did you know that Joann's offers a 15% discount to teachers?!  I used that as well!

Of course I will need to use some management strategies tomorrow.  How else would I be possibly be able to choose one of my new friends to pick the next egg?  

I saw this idea on pinterest over the summer... from Kathleen at Growing Kinders!  Thanks Kathleen!

So I made these to go with my lesson for tomorrow.  My new friends will write their names on the tags and then I can pull them out of the little container.  

My little lucky duck stuffed animal will help me talk the kiddos through a guided relaxation.  All the kids will lay on their backs and I will talk them through a deep relaxation story.  Then lucky duck will go around with me and gently peck on their cheeks to help me wake them up!  So sweet :)

To begin the end meditation I will tell them some fun clues so they can practice their inferring skills.  They'll each get another egg with something inside.  I will tell them that it is light, comes from an oviparous animal, sometimes you tickle someone with it, they are sometimes stuffed inside a coat or pillow.  What is it?  

Did you guess a feather?  Then you were right!  You are so SMART!!

I will show them how to use a feather to help them with a breathing meditation.  You can see my post here to learn more about feather breathing!

{Click here to download the documents for this activity!}

  

The Lunar Cycle

I have been teaching my moon unit for the last few weeks in my classroom.   

It is almost complete and ready for you all!  Stay tuned!

Triops Life Cycle Awesomeness {with freebie}

Hey everyone!  I've missed you!  I'm back, after a week.  I've been super busy running all over the school.  I wanted to share this science activity that I started with my kiddos this week.  They have been looking forward to this for two months!  They have been so patient too!  

Well, it all started with this:

Have you ever seen these little guys before?  Don't they look so sweet and cuddly!?  Ya right, I know they look absolutely terrifying I mean the stuff nightmares are made of, right!

Okay, back in October during our rock unit we were investigating some fossils. I found some trilobite fossils and then low and behold I found this little package for sale in a scholastic book order.  These snugly little triops are ancient relatives of trilobites!  So... I purchased them with some of my teacher scholastic book club points.  You can get them here though.

This website has lesson plans, worksheets and loads of information to help you teach your students all about these ancient creatures!

Wowwy, wowwy, wowza!  My little darlings were SO excited when they came to school on Friday and saw this on the shelf! 

 Our school bought an aquarium for us from Wal-Mart for only $25.  It even has a light attached to the lid.

You have to use pure natural spring water.  So I bought some at Dollar Tree.  My students loved helping pour the water in the aquarium.  After the water gets to the right temperature we poured the capsule that contains the eggs into a cup.  I did this under the Elmo document camera and projected it onto my GIANT smart board.  

Can you see the teeny tiny eggs?  They are in suspended animation, that is just one of the cool words your kiddos will learn.  

Did you know I have a GIANT smartboard?!  They didn't look so tiny on this baby!  ;)

Here is the what the aquarium looks like today.  After  two days we still didn't have any triop babies.  I was getting a little worried! So, I took my lamp from my library and removed the shade and set it up behind the tank.  This warmed up the water quite a bit.  

  

Then today one of my students noticed we had FOUR little babies!!!  My students couldn't wait to have a turn at looking at them with the magnifying glass!   They are SOOOO small!  They are suppose to double in size every day!  

Today my students worked in their packet/booklet that I created for them.  You can use it too if you decide to take on this engaging project!

I copied the front and back onto 11 x 17 paper and then fold it down the middle hamburger style!

Then I made two of the journal pages and copied those onto the 11 X 17 paper, front and back.  That way you can slip them inside and staple it for a booklet. 

  My students are going to observe and record their findings daily.  

{Click the scientist to snag your FREE copy!}

It comes with three different covers and some surprises!

I made this cover in case you are doing a different project and want to use the journal booklet.

  Spoiler alert: it includes a life cycle of a butterfly coloring page! .  Hurry, go check it out!

Let me know what you think!

Life Cycle of A Frog

Wahoo!!  I have been on spring break since Friday and I don't have to go back to school until the 2nd of May!!  

Anyway, I am sure you're starting to catch a pattern in my posts.  Can you tell I LOVE science, project based learning and nature???  I promise it's not all I teach, just my favorite to blog about right now.  Our math curriculum is Saxon and reading is Houghton Mifflin and even though I add fun extra ideas to those lessons, science is where I really get to be creative in my teaching.  

Part of second grade core in Utah is life cycles. I know the life cycle of a frog is very popular to teach. Since I already have several animals that I take care of and was not willing to take on another this is what I did.  

I bought these cute little life cycle sets from Oriental Trading.  You get the frog and the butterfly set for only $5.99.  Click here to order them.        

Then as a class we read this book.  I put it up on the projector with my Elmo document camera and we read it together as a class.  Click on the picture to order it from Amazon.  

Then as a class we made an extra desk in our class look like a pond.  We used paper, some fabric that looks like water, rubber frogs, fake flowers, and a plastic bowl.  This was the first day. My students kept adding to it for the next couple of weeks.  They really loved creating this habitat.

So then over the next week and a half to two weeks I switch out the life cycle pieces so the students can see it change. The life cycle set from Oriental Trading doesn't come with a frog egg so I just use a marble.  It's a lot bigger then an actual frog egg but it's what I had laying on my desk.   They loved it and can you believe it Mrs. Matsuda had no idea that they were switched.  They were actually growing and changing.  I was just as surprised as they were!!!  ;)

There you have it folks.  Our adult frog.  He has come out of the water.  My kiddos were so surprised when they came back from lunch one day to find the pond empty and an adult frog on the edge of the water.  

Is this something you might try in your classroom?  What other fun activities do you do with the frog life cycle?  

Rain Forest

Wow, the last few weeks have been CRAZY BUSY!!!  Here are some pictures of the "rainforest" we created in our classroom.  We watched this brainpopjr.com video...

We also love this book.  Click here to order it.

 

...and then made this rain forest complete with rubber frogs, ants and flies:

Can you see the flies dangling in the air?  I hot glued fishing line to the wings and then tied them to the branches.  It's just the perfect touch!

Then my students filled out this writing extension that I made and want to share with you!  Just let me know if you download it :)

Seeds

I wanted to share this awesome investigative activity that my second graders did today.  

First we watched this video at brainpopjr.com If you don't have an account set up with them you can set up a free 5 day trial!  All you have to have is an e-mail account. 

Click on the picture for the link to the video.

The night before I do this activity I soak lima and pinto beans in water, enough for one per person each.  Then, I give each child a magnifying glass (oh the excitement!!) and bean of each kind.  I let them investigate the seeds.  They usually figure out they can take the seed coat off pretty quickly.  I prompt them to tell me what they see.  It's really awesome because you can see the first root (also known as the radicle vocabulary word!!)  and the baby leaves in boths beans with just letting them soak over night.  They grow so fast!

 Can you see the radicle and baby leaves?

After they've had time to explore.  I pass out their very own bean book.  I use this one from enchantedlearning.com 

 Click on the picture for the link.

The last part of this lesson is each student gets to make their own green house.  They get a plastic sandwich bag and a paper towel.  (I pre-write their names on their bag with sharpie) They wet the towel at the drinking fountain (we're lucky the fountain is just outside our door, we don't have a sink in our room).  Then they put one lima bean and one pinto bean in the back on top of the paper towel.  We taped them to the window and will check them in two days.  We'll continue to check them for a couple of weeks or until they start turning moldy.  

What do you think?  Is this something you might try in your classroom?  Thanks for stopping by!