Sunday, October 26, 2014

Nocturnal Animals: Owls

All About Owls

Owl craft
IMG

 Owl Read Aloud Stories

 
Education videos


Owl Song

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Teaching Echolocation to kindergarteners

Going Batty!

 
Language Arts
Bat rhyming words activity and craft (-at family words)
 
Art/Science
I was inspired by Creative Tots bat art project. We did this nocturnal bat project and integrated language arts by having students form sentences.

Science/Art/Writing bat activities


Go to Kidzone to download this FREE Itsy Bitsy Bat Fact Mini Booklet. 
Free Kinder Bat fact mini book


FUN GAMES 
"Echo-Location"

Found this super fun game on Lewis learning library blog. It was a spin-off  on Marco polo.

Fun kindergarten Nocturnal Science  games
They loved playing Echo-Location
 
 
Students were either bats or bugs. The "bats" had to find food/bugs with their eyes close. The  "bats" would say "ECHO" and the bugs would respond by saying "LOCATION".  I had my bugs not move around the playground. The object of the game was for the bats to catch all the bugs without sight. This game also helped some of the students to better understand the meaning of echolocation.

Here is a fun song I played to teach my visual and auditory learners. 

Click on Science Fun: Bats for more bat game ideas

There are some animals that can’t see with their eyes very well, but they can still move safely and find food. Bats are one of these wonderful and unique animals. 

Most bats send out sounds that bounce off objects and return to the bat’s ears as echoes. A bat can decide where objects are, how big objects are, even the shape of objects so they know what is food and what they might run into. 

Sound travels through air, through water, and through solids. When you speak, sound vibrations travel from your mouth through the air. Here’s an activity to “see” like a bat. 

“See” like a bat 
Where's that sound?
Batty Science: Echolcation kindergarten Game

What you need for this activity: 
a helper
some kind of blindfold 

Directions: 

1. Place the blind fold over your eyes.
2. Ask your helper to click his/her fingers or slap his/her hands above you, behind you, to your right, to your left, below you, and directly in front of you.
3. Guess where the sound is coming from each time.

Critical thinking/Discussion question:
Which was the direction that was hardest to figure out? Why do you think so? 

Bats can tell what their prey is like by listening for changes in vibrations. Sound vibrations traveled through the air when your helper clicked fingers or clapped hands. But sound vibrations travel through liquids and solids too. 


Sunday, October 12, 2014

Why Do We Celebrate Christopher Columbus Day?


Teaching Kindergartners About Christopher Columbus 
This link, Brain Pop Jr. has a great Columbus Day Video for kids, sequencing game, ship craft etc. 



Key questions for your students to Learn
National Geographic Video- Christopher Columbus Biography for kids
  1. Who was he? A sailor / explorer
  2. Where did he live/where was he from? Spain
  3. What continent is Spain in? Europe 
  4. Who paid for his voyage? The Queen and King
  5. How many ships did he sail with? Three
  6. What were the names of the ships: Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria
  7. Where did he want to land? Asia/India
  8. Why did he want to find a different route to Asia?
  9. Did he reach his destination? No
  10. Why not? His calculations were incorrect. He had no Idea  that he would run into the Americas. 
  11. Where did he land? The Bahamas- North America 
  12. Were there people there? YES!
  13. What did they call them? Indians
  14. Why did they call them Indians?  Because Columbus thought he landed in India.
  15. What discoveries did he make? The Earth was not flat, it was indeed round and "New world"- The Americas. 
Learning The Seven Continents 

This is the Seven Continents song my students enjoyed.


Below is the song I taught my students:


Columbus' First Voyage
to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb"



Columbus sailed the ocean blue,
Ocean blue, ocean blue.
Columbus sailed the ocean blue
In 1492.


He sailed west to reach the east,

reach the east, reach the east,

He sailed west to reach the east
In 1492.


Asian shores he never reached,

Never reached, never reached,

Asian shores he never reached,
In 1492.


Instead, a whole new land he found,

Land he found, land he found,

Instead, a whole new land he found,
In 1492.

FREE ACTIVITIES 
Here are a few activities my kindergartners did. Feel free to click on the links to take you to the source I download them from.  

Pictures COMING SOON...