STEM Day!

Our county has really put a huge emphasis on teaching STEM lessons! Most of you probably are familiar with this, but if not...here's a quick what's up!

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.  Teaching STEM lessons means you create plans that involve all 4 curricular areas.  There's a big focus on children having the chance to work with ideas or materials to engineer their own designs.  There's also a focus on giving them the time to experiment with their designs, learn from their mistakes, and make modifications to enhance it.

It's really quite amazing to watch. The best part is the teacher basically sets the task and let's the kiddos take the reigns. We move throughout the room encouraging their thought processes and asking questions that help them further their own thinking. We are constantly amazed at what our 5 and 6 year olds come up with!

To make sure we keep our school focused on STEM, we have our annual STEM Science day!  We usually work with our grade level teachers as well as some non-homeroom teachers to create, plan, and execute science rotations.  This year our K team set up 3 classrooms with 3 different lessons in each. The principal and counselor worked with us this year to guide the lessons. 

We basically made sure materials were ready, packs were printed and ready to go, and groups of 3 had been predetermined based on focus, writing ability, and cohesiveness!

We used Fairy Tale themed lessons that we purchased from the awesome Regina Davis on TPT! 

Lesson 1: Rub-a-Dub 3 Men in a Tub! Kiddos had to design, test, and record the outcome of building a boat from aluminum foil. 

Lesson 2: Run, Run, Run as Fast as You Can! Groups worked to construct a bridge for the gingerbread man out of toothpicks and marshmallows.

Lesson 3: I'll Huff and I'll Puff!  This last lesson had kiddos building a structure that would keep the pigs safe and withstand the wolf's huffs and puffs.

We always take time after the lessons to talk with the kids and reflect on how things went.  What modifications did they make that worked/didn't work, how well they worked with their groups, basically anything that gets them thinking.

The science and engineering are pretty evident.  The math comes in when they measure the height of structures or count and record the number of bears their boat held.  They count, measure, tally...the sky is the limit.  The technology comes in in a variety of ways. We let the kids use the IPad to take pictures and videos of their work. We've used them in the past to put them into a PowerPoint. We show that on the Activboard and the kids make notes right onto the photos.

So... If you haven't tried STEM yet...what are you waiting for? Grab a lesson from TPT or create your own...and go wild!!!

Here are 2 lessons we've created, tested, and added to our store.  We loved them both and so did our kiddos. 

Let us know if you give it a try, or if you're already a STEM expert and have some great ideas to share!

11th Night of Christmas Giveaway

On the 11th night of Christmas Kindergarten Squared gave to me 

The Bubbles, Bubbles, STEM activity for FREE

(Link no longer available!) 

Skippy the Squirrel

Guess who came to our room today? One of our sweet grandmas brought her rescued squirrel in for a fall visit! 

Skippy was rescued after falling out of his nest as a tiny baby squirrel with no hair and eyes still closed. This is the 6th squirrel they have rescued, and they are becoming quite knowledgeable in the ins and outs of it all! Skippy has made a TON of progress and is growing like a weed. He drinks milk from a dropper, takes naps in his blanket, and gets some exercise in the house.

Once spring arrives, he will be prepped and released back into the wild. They have had lots of success releasing their little patients back into the wild, including having them visit every so often just to check in! How sweet!

This was such a great lesson in caring for nature and bringing the outdoors inside...up close and personal!

Rockin' It in Kindergarten

We've been focusing on rocks and soil for the last 3 weeks or so. Truly, I used to loathe this unit. I didn't really know how to make rocks and dirt interesting or fun. Good news for me though, because k kiddos think rocks, dirt, mud...is all pretty cool. So we added the cool soil and rock exploration stations and let them get in there and play!  It's been amazing watching them draw, weigh, compare, measure rocks and have a darn good time doing it.

So we basically set up each study (we did soil first and then rocks) by completing KQLI charts together. We brainstormed things they already knew, questions they had, and left the "learned" part until the end. We also added illustrations to the chart. 

Next we watched short video clips from Brainpop, jr! And United Streaming. We took notes in their science journals (which they LOVE), and we read and illustrated simple emergent readers that gave them some good background knowledge.

Then it was time to explore. The kiddos each brought in 3 different rocks to add to our stations. We set up 6 stations throughout the room. The kids each chose a partner to work with for the week and 2 pairs of partners could work at any 1 station at a time.  They chose which stations they wanted to work in and moved around as they completed a station. They didn't have to complete ALL 6 stations but most of them tried to and did because they LOVED them! Yay!

We loved all the discussions we heard. I think that may be what I love the most. I don't really care so much about WHAT they actually write on the recording sheets, it's more about what they TALK about and DO! The recording sheets help tremendously in keeping them focused on the task and keeping them accountable though! Here are the sheets from one little cutie pies pack!

We wrapped up the unit by revisiting our KQLI charts and recorded all the great discoveries they made. Rocks...you ROCK!

What kinds of things do you do with your kiddos to make rocks and soil...fun?

Soil Collections

We started our Rocks and Soil unit last week. We started the unit with SOIL.  We watched the Brainpop,Jr video clip about soil and brainstormed a web of things we already knew about it (it's dirty, it can be different colors...) then it was time to do some up close scientific research!

The kiddos made a "soil collection plan". They decided what tools we needed, how we could gather our samples, and where we would look on our school grounds to collect the samples.

Then they brought in the needed supplies...trowels, small shovels, gardening gloves, little buckets... And we set off to gather our samples.

Next we headed back inside to make some up close observations! We carefully (as in maybe got soil ALL over the place and had a big ol clean up party afterwards) glued some of the samples onto a soil collection sheet and recorded our observations. 

Then we met back together and shared our findings. We spent nearly 4 complete class sessions on soil. We took notes in our science journals, read non-fiction soil books, and they read and illustrated their own SOIL emergent readers.  This upcoming week we'll shift our focus to ROCKS...now that our little scientists know THAT'S where soil comes from. More on that soon! 

You can find all of the soil and rock activities, recording sheets, emergent readers and more in our "Rockin' it in K: Rocks and Soil" unit!

Soiled Again!!

Promise, this is the last time we soil you with soil!! For real!!! But we really did think you would want to hear all about how well or MESSY our soil lessons went after using our new super, duper Soil and Rocks unit!

Thanks Cristy for making an awesome flip chart for the active board so the kiddos could develop a plan for the best way to learn about soil! Of course they decided that finding soil around the school was the best way to learn about soil!! WOOHOO!

What next? We thought the kiddos should also tell us what tools we would need and the procedures we should follow! Let's just say our Kinders are funny little people and smart too!

They told us we would need shovels and buckets to collect the soil. We told them we didn't have enough at school and they told us they would bring plenty! So what did we do???

Of course we waited until the next day, when everyone brought buckets and shovels to collect soil! Yep! You knew it already! Only one person brought a shovel and one  brought a bucket!

So we talked with the kiddos about a new plan for collecting soil! After pulling TEETH and pulling out some of our own HAIR, the kiddos finally came up with using bags to put the soil in and with a LITTLE (I mean a TON) of guidance they came up with using spoons to dig up the soil!!

The kiddos told us each pair needed 2 samples. We told the kiddos to pick a partner who could help them or who they could help and get busy collecting.

It was so awesome watching and listening to the Mini-Scientists rationalize why they needed 2 bags or why they should not put both samples in the same bag.

After successfully collecting soils samples or PLAYING in the dirt for 30 minutes, our friends were ready to get busy! Our little scientists used a magnifying glass to observe and compare 2 soil types!!

They had a blast!!!

The next day, we hypothesized about which type of soil would best grow seeds! The kids worked in teams to place soil in a cup, then add seeds, more soil, and water. When finished they author wrote about what they saw, they illustrator drew the picture of their soil with a pencil, finally the artist colored the picture. We will observe and record about the samples again on Monday!

The kids think the loamy (dark/moist soil) will best grow seeds!! We will SEE tomorrow if anything happened. Please, don't let our seeds be too old!! Please, I really hope something has grown!!!

What next???
Rockin' with Rocks I guess!!

Have a great week!!

Rockin' with Soil and Rocks! - Leave A Comment if you Dare :)

Yahoo!!! WE are so excited about beginning our next science unit on Rocks and Soil. Seriously!!!

Every year (before NOW) we really did kinda dread, hate, loathe, our unit on rocks and soil.   But guess what????

We just finished creating, what we THINK will be a super, awesome science unit on Rocks and Soil that will not make us want to poke our eyes out! This unit will not only be rigorous and fun for our kiddos but will also be PRETTY DARN CUTE and easy to look at (if I do say so myself)!!

Click any picture to head on over to our tpt store to grab this pack!

This unit is jam packed with Learning Stations for Rocks, Exploration Activities for Soil, 2 Non-Fiction readers, and an Experiment on Soil. The kiddos will have the opportunity to brainstorm what they know, ask questions about things they want to know, hunt for rocks and soil, measure, weigh, compare, write about and read about rocks and soil! We can't wait to get started! Click the images below to grab some FREEBIES :).

When your not busy enjoying this fall weather or watching Survivor or FOOTBALL, check out all the cool things in this pack!!

As always, if you leave us a comment about what you think, you may be the LUCKY WINNER !!

We will give 1 AWAY!!

HOTS= A Sight for Sore Eyes and Na--Na--NaNa-Can't Touch This!

Apologies for the very nerdy, hopefully not too boring, report on science!
You know this nerdy, science blog post was written by the very nerdy half of kindergarten Squared!!
Stop reading here if you are trying to say awake for a while or KEEP READING if you want to hear about some cool science in kindergarten!

Anyway, while Cristy and  I are totally enjoying the crisp, cool Fall Football weather, we are burning HOT in the classroom!

HOT, otherwise known as Higher Order Thinking is that all important, researched based method for getting those kiddos to dig deep into the content and think about how they know things and why things are the way they are. Confused now, right??

If you are having a hard time integrating HOT into your daily lessons, just get to that science. Science is one area where the kiddos have blast making their brain grow while thinking deeply!

We are continuing our work on our 5 Senses, you know our Super Powers that help us learn about the world.

Today, was really a SIGHT for SORE EYES!! It was awesome. We reviewed our 5 senses, then discussed in detail what we need to see and all of the things we can notice just by looking at things.

The kiddos said, "We can see...
color, shapes, sizes, patterns, pretty things, ugly things and much, much more.

We then discussed that scientists often pose a question. So we posed the question, "What happens when things/people get further away?"  Then, the kiddos discussed with a friend what they thought. They decided that things would shrink.

So we generated a hypothesis (an idea you can test). One of my friends said, "Things that get far away will look like they are tiny."

What now? We tested that. Two kiddos kept getting farther and farther away. After testing, we discussed what we saw. We always incorporate HOT questions into science by constantly and continuously asking...

WHY?   HOW DO YOU KNOW?   HOW CAN WE PROVE IT?

After our experiment with sight, it was time to experiment with the sense of TOUCH! We followed the same steps:

Ask a question

Generate a hypothesis

Test It 

Record

Discuss

We asked, "Will you know what something is if you touch it?"

Our hypothesis was: You can know what something is if you touch it.

How did we test it?

We used the same 5 Senses Unit from Jessica Rosace as seen below for an awesome recording form.

Before you start: Create mystery bags. Enough so that students can work with a partner and each group has a bag to work with. Example, we each have 20 kids in our classroom. So, we made 10 bags so that each pair has a place to work. However, there were only 6 recording spaces. No Worries!  The kiddos only need to feel a total of 6 objects. For each of the 6 objects, the kiddos should describe what they feel, record what they think it is, then peek and record if they were correct, 

The only reason we had 10 bags instead of 6 was purely for classroom management!! Everyone needs a place to begin and everyone needs to constantly be engaged!

The kiddos had an absolute blast. After working in partners, we reconvened as a class. We had 1 friend, who was blindfolded describe one of the objects in the bag and discussed as a class. We just did this for a recap and ending discussion on our hypothesis. 

Hope you try some of these fun experiments out! Let us know what you do to get your kiddos excited about science!!

Whose Nose Knows???

Hi Friends!  We teach our kiddos that when we learn about the world around us, we are learning SCIENCE!!

We love science! Our non-fiction books about science concepts integrate so nicely into our cafe reading time. However, making time for science experiments is a MUST and a CHALLENGE!

As we always say, "We give something up everyday for something else!" By the way, we don't even nap or rest in our classes because there is just not enough time :). So much to do and so little time to do it.

We also teach our kiddos that kindergarteners have 5 super powers that they use to learn about the world! Our discussion about what the 5 super powers could be was awesome! It didn't take our kiddos long to figure out that our 5 super powers are the same as our 5 senses.

Check out the link below for a fun song about the 5 senses!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvBXWMvOGOk

We use this unit as an intro into science and the kiddos absolutely have a blast. They ask every day, "Are we doing science today?"

Today's science experiment with SMELLY things was super fun and funny! The faces on the kiddos as they smelled a couple of our smelly jars was PRICELESS!

To get ready, create some smelly jars and copy the recording sheet from Jessica Rosace's 5 Senses Unit!
If you want her Smelly recording form as well as many other activities and forms, check out her entire 5 Senses unit!

This Experiment was super easy! We asked the kiddos, "Whose nose, knows the smell?" They had to discuss how they could find out and then they got busy SMELLING, recording and discussing.

We cut up a lemon, an orange, dill pickles, and onions and put them in individual, small opaque containers.
We also put some bubble gum, crushed cookies, chocolate bar, vinegar, cinnamon sticks, and a dryer sheet in individual, opaque containers.
Then we covered the contents of each container with a cotton ball and let them sit throughout the day.

Wow!! Those were some serious smells! The kiddos each had a recording sheet and went from jar to jar smelling the contents. They drew a picture and labeled what they thought was in the jar and drew a smiley/frownie depending on if they liked the smell or not. Finally we passed the jar one at a time, discussed the students' guesses, and showed the true contents of the jar!!!

Hope you had  a fabulous Monday!

5 Senses - Whose Tongue Reigns Supreme?

What do you get when you cross 19 children, 5 "mystery items", and NO EYES allowed?  You get one dang HYSTERICAL time...oh---and some really good learning going on!

We started our 5 senses unit this past week!

Today we learned about the sense of TASTE!  We had 5 "mystery items" we had already portioned out into bite sized pieces.  Here's what we used.

Then we gave all the kiddos a recording sheet.  Then we made them promise to tell their eyeballs to STAY OUT of the experiment.  Do you know how hard that is for a 5 year old?  Hard!  As in---really Hard!  As in one kiddo even said "I am not even that good at keeping my eyes closed!"  HA!

Then we had them hold out 1 hand and cup it to await the first "mystery item".  They couldn't touch it with their other hand, or smell it, or "listen" to it...no other senses could be used!  When we said "POP IT!", they were supposed to trust us FULLY and COMPLETELY and pop that little morsel RIGHT into their mouths...sight unseen!

Well---this went VERY well (with only a random peek or two here and there!)...UNTIL...wait for it---wait for it---UNTIL---we gave them a Sizzling Cinnamon Jelly Belly Jellybean for item #4!  Everything was all fun and games until the "FIRE" started burning!  They were waving hands, smacking lips, spitting out driblets of slobber and tiny particles of Jelly Beans---except for the few brave souls who said "More! More! Please!  I have taste buds of steel!"  or something very similar to that.

Anywho...I guess you can imagine they were just the TEENSY TINIEST BIT leery when "mystery item" #5 rolled around.  Honestly...one kiddo actually REFUSED to hold out his hand to take it!  The 18 other brave souls said they were ALL IN and just go ahead and BRING IT Mrs. Fogle!

So I gave them CHOCOLATE!  That is very sweet of me---only did I mention that it was UNSWEETENED chocolate?  Well, in my defense...bitter stuff isn't SUPPOSED to taste good and well---I couldn't give them black coffee, could I? Plus, I knew they would be peeking FOR SURE on item #5 so it had to LOOK innocent enough!  Well those people DID NOT, I repeat DID NOT feel the love for bitter chocolate.  One of my too funny girls actually claimed she thought "mystery item" #5 was DIRT!  People, if you have not had any unsweetened chocolate in a while-DON'T!  That's ALL I have to say about that!  DON'T!

So all fun and games aside, they TRULY loved the whole thing.  They were actually wanting a "Mystery Item" #6! They were proud that their tongues were so smart and guessed ALL of the items correctly---even if they did set their mouths on FIRE and eat DIRT! ;)

PS --- If you love this activity, you can find it in a GREAT pack I purchased from Jessica Rosace on TpT called My 5 Senses Unit Plan!

Here's hoping you are having a HAPPY hump day!

"Sugar 'Em up and Send 'Em Home" and "Soil Samples!"

We know you will agree when we say Valentine's Day should only be on a Friday or weekend.  That way we can celebrate on Friday because instead of one crazy day, we had 2!  Really it was our fault because we did sugar 'em up good on Thursday and sent 'em home. But bad news for us, the parents sent them back to us on Friday!  Hee! Hee!

Our Valentine's Day was super fun though! We did a service learning project. Before writing poems, we listed all the staff in our school who work hard, but may not have their own class  like the nurse, janitors, principal, etc... Our list included 30 staff members. The kiddos wrote poems using the Roses are Red format except choosing anything they want to fill in that is red, blue and sweet. My favorite poem this year read:

Firetrucks are red,

Blue jeans are blue,

Donuts are sweet,

And so are you.

After the kiddos wrote their poems, they made gift baggies of Hershey Kisses to go with each poem. It was so awesome! Kids counted out bags and kisses, then cut and tied ribbons! Every part of this project was done by them. When the gift bags were stuffed and ready, we divided up into 2 groups (one group with me and one with theNatalie) and set out to deliver poems. Each child read his/her poem to a different staff member then gave them the poem and goodie bag. The staff loved, loved, LOVED this small treat!  When reflecting at the end we discussed how it felt to give the treat. The kiddos kept saying they felt happy and great! We asked why they felt that way when they didn't get a treat in return? One friend said, "Their smile made me happy because I knew I had made them smile" :) LOVE!! 

In the afternoon was our party! We had a blast decorating cupcakes and drinking pink floats with ice cream and pink soda with cute straws :). 

No worries about being sugared up and returning to school Friday because we just pretended we were scientists and collected soil samples, used magnifying glasses to observe the soil, then recorded what we observed. The kiddos did awesome and had a blast being scientists! If you would like to use our recording form, just have your kiddos collect samples, put some glue, then sprinkle a different soil sample on each side and write what they observed! Click the recording form below to grab it :).

Who is ready for Monday AND Tuesday night???? WE ARE!! Looks like Sean will have some tough times on the hometown dates!! Can't wait!! Yikes I almost forgot, you guys may have to fill me in because I will be at Disney with the husband and kiddos. Maybe Cristy will text me during the show if she is allowed to watch (hee! hee!) and keep me posted. I don't like to wait and find out when I watch at a later date. Maybe I should try to find some spoilers!!

Thanks a bunch!!

Wahoo! Arctic Freeze, Here We Come!

Ok, so clearly we have lost our minds!  We live in Georgia people!  Absolutely...no...chance...of...ANY...Arctic....Freeze....here!  For the love of Pete, we hardly have any chance of one single darn snowflake!

Don't get us wrong!  We love some sunshine and nice mild weather!  But we do wish we could get at least a little taste of a Northern powdery snowy landscape!  Just once...for maybe a day or two...and then...maybe some more sunshine!  You know we Southerners don't REALLY know what to do when we actually get snow!

Mostly we close schools immediately...SCORE!  But driving...fuh-get about it!  Not gonna happen...at least it ain't gonna be pretty!

So the only ARCTIC FREEZE that we can probably count on 100% will be the one that hits our room this month!  We have done lots of animal units and projects over the years, but now we have prettied it all up and wrapped it with a bow...for all of you guys (and I'm not gonna lie...for us too!).

We just finished up this 90+ page unit full of games, printables, vocabulary cards, writing activities, 6 emergent readers, poems, and tons more.  We are soooo excited!  (Think "little girl with the stuffed animal at the fair" in Despicable Me..."He's sooooo fluffffy!!!!  Too funny!)

So here's a quick sneak peak!

Now... if you are thinking..."Hey.  I maybe like this.  I think I might want to do this.  I think this is the unit for me!"  Well...other than being so AWESOME...we are glad you are still  hanging around!

  So here's a big sneak peak with the 

WHOLE (almost) scoop!

Click here to grab it at our TPT store!

And if you are still here...dang it...we love you people!  So we think you deserve something FREE!  Here are a couple of goodies from the pack!

4 FREEBIES from our Arctic Freeze Pack!

         

Whether you are nice and toasty on a beach somewhere, or snuggled in from the winter cold...

We hope you have an AWESOME week!

Winter FREEBIE and Motion Madness

Well friends! Hope you had a fabulous week with your kiddos!!! It sure did fly by! We got lots of great goodies from our cutie pies!! Can't wait to shop, got out to eat and go to the movies! Loving some gift cards :).

Anyway, while making ornaments, learning holiday rhymes, and continuing with our word work, we still had time to incorporate our unit on Motion! The kiddos had a blast! We made a motion pack with instructions for introducing several vocabulary terms as well as station ideas with recording forms! Check out some of our pics of kids exploring motion! If you need a resource for motion, check out the link below the photos :).

Here is our FREEBIE Winter Vocabulary, I have, Who Has Game :).

Our Winter Word Work Pack will be ready soon, so be on the lookout!

Hope everyone has a great vacation!