A Little Plant Freebie!

Hey all! 

Alison and I just got back from the trip to visit Maria Walther.  Wow!  I absolutely LOVE getting to see other teachers’ classrooms.  It makes me feel so revitalized.  I came in my room today to rearrange my desks and to post a little plant freebie for you!  I hope I can get back in the blogging swing of things.

My kids and I planted seeds in a Ziploc bag with cotton balls and water last week.  I actually have had good luck with dry lima beans, from the grocery store!  When the seed starts to crack and sprout, they can see the changes through the bag.  I've been doing this trick forever so I really don’t know where I found the idea originally. Here is a picture of their bags:

While I was gone on Friday, the kids wrote some observations.  I love seeing them use the plant vocabulary we've been using in our discussions!

If you would like the freebie, click here.  After we see them sprout, we plant the sprouts in a cup filled with potting soil.  They get to water them and watch them grow a little more before they take it home.

I would love to know what you all are teaching in the last few weeks of school!  We are going to delve into some poetry writing (thanks to Maria Walter’s inspiration!) and learn about bugs and arachnids.  Thanks for reading!

~Caroline

REAL OWL CLASSROOM WOW???????

What an amazing week we had learning about OWLS!   Last Tuesday Greg from the local Wildlife Refuge  came to share his knowledge of owls with us.

Greg discussed with the students  owl habitats, features, and hunting habits, as well as an owls diet. Which led us straight into........  Yep.......the dissection of owl pellets.      I have to admit if I would have thought about it for very long I would have probably made myself sick but the kids were SOOO SUPER excited about finding out what those owls ate I didn't even think twice about the magnitude of gross in which I was participating .


Here students worked on dissecting and sorting bones into categories. 

The following day the "Owl Lady" as we call her came to visit.  Bev is the owner of a local shelter that rehabilitates injured animals.  You can learn more about her shelter here. 

Bev has such a passion for her animals, she kept our first graders intrigued for 50 minutes as she talked about the screech owl, barn owl, barred owl, short eared owl, and great horned owl. 

Bev has been coming to our school for years to share her love for owls with us.  I look forward to her visit year after year.  To finish up our unit on owls each student wrote a book of owl facts and completed the cutest owl art project. The kiddos had no problem completing there owl facts book.  They are now owl experts after learning about owls for a week and a half.   

We also had all kinds of fun with the activities here......

We may not have a zoo in our small town but we do have many great resources for learning. 

~Alison

 

 

Owl Unit Freebie, Living and Non Living

Ok, Bloggy Friends here is the freebie from my owl unit I promised in the wee hours of the morning.  I decided to share my "Living and Non Living Station/Pocket Chart Activity"  so even if you don't feel compelled to teach about owls you can still incorporate this activity into your science block.  Take a peek and enjoy.............

~Alison

We have spent the last few days "GETTING THE SKELETONS OUT OF THE CLOSET" AKA-learning about the skeletal system.  I usually do this lesson along with my health unit in February but when I received  this>>>>








 I thought what better time to do this little project I usually do in February........

 Students actually made the replicas of themselves during one of the first few weeks of school and I tucked them away knowing they would use them with their skeleton projects.

 

We started our mini unit by reading and discussing our Science Spin on Bones.  When we were finished we read .........

 and followed up with some labeling practice . 

Get Your Copy Here

 

We also read

and don't forget to watch the Skeleton Dance video on You Tube

 

and finished our unit with a guided drawing lesson on the bones in our bodies.  What do you think?

  Fun  Pre-Halloween Activity or What???????

 

~Alison