Science Notebooks

I was having a conversation with my Science Curriculum Specialist, and we were talking about Science notebooks. She was encouraging me to shift away from my science journal (with a pre-made template) and move into Science Notebooks. 

Over the course of a few weeks, she sent me some samples she had. I know in the Tony Stead book, he refers a lot to having students take notes in their notebooks. 

I was thinking...this Science notebook could be used for both.

What to Put in the Science Notebook?

At first, I asked Jany (my Science Specialist) to give me ideas for what the kids to look at. 

My thought was that I wanted it to be something easy. My class does observations on food jars, a tree on the playground and snails. Jany came up with the idea of just taking my class outside for fifteen minutes(each week) and letting them decided. She reminded me that kids are natural Scientist. 


Why not allow them to take charge and make decisions?

Some fairies live in pine cones.
Pine cones have sap.

Going Outside
I decided to call this time Bates Backyard time.
 I kept putting this off due to snow and finally on Friday we did it! 

We found a small spot on the playground. 

acorn top

Becoming Scientist
We looked around for an object/observation.
What would we wonder about?
What would we find? 
You could bring in your item, but it may be something that cannot come inside. We could take a picture of your item.
Be ready to share and record your observation. 

My class loved looking at all the items. We put them on a tray to look at. 

Reflection
Collecting objects from nature was simple, and the kids LOVED it. My next step is to find some books to read that connect to some of the objects that the children found. For example, I had a lot of kids bring in rocks so this week I plan to read some rock books.

When the kids were sharing their items, we focused on using describing words. 

We also shared wonder questions. 

I recently found this AMAZING site that has a wonder question each day called WONDEROPOLIS. Looking at some of the wonder questions on this site has helped my classroom start creating their wonder questions.  

Below is our first Bates Backyard time. 

Enjoy your Sunday! It is finally becoming warm in cold, snowy New England! 



simplebooklet.com

Thinking Maps Thursday

In KC, we have been working on animal reports. 

Here are some of our Thinking Maps this week. 

Circle Map

Can You Guess What I am?

Tree Maps

Bubble Map

 climb, claws, purrs, run

 Have paws, big ears, GRRRR (growls)

 green eyes, smiles, yellow, has fur

hiss, slither, green, long

click here for templates 

Some of the Voice Thread below has some recording issues!!
But you can click on some that your can hear!

Informational Writing

This week we started to learn about informational writing. My class LOVES nonfiction so I knew they would be excited about this unit of study. Finally, they get to write about animals, plants or weather!! 

We are learning about Ladybugs.

Our class project was to write about Ladybugs. We created the RAN chart above (Tony Stead/Linda Hoyt). We shared our thinking on a Voice Thread about Ladybugs. We went on a great Ladybug site that gave us lots of information. I actually learned many things I didn't know about ladybugs. We read some great books about Ladybugs.

Anchor Chart

I love how this anchor chart came out! All of the illustrations are made by the kids. Whenever possible I always want to see something made by kids rather than store bought! For the last week, we have been learning all of the things above. 

In the past, I have always made it optionally for kids to write ALL About books (Lucy Calkins). This year I kept the model from Explorations and had all the kids work on a Group Write.
Quick Thought
 I decided to provide more scaffolding for students for the class write. You will see below that I created a template that made it easier for kindergartner. It made it MUCH easier for the group!! 

Ladybugs eat aphids.

Can kindergartner's write a table of contents on their own? YES YES!!

I put a blank page after the cover.
The kids did great with this task of adding the Table of Contents after the book was put together.
 I LOVE the kid writing!

labeling your ladybug

 Ladybugs can be different colors.

 Ladybugs get together in the winter.

 Ladybugs can be fun and when you be quiet they come.

 Ladybugs can bite it can be painful.

 Ladybugs are poisonous.

When ladybugs are young they are larva.

Next steps, students are working on their own informational book. We will use some Thinking maps to gather information. I can't wait to share next week.

click here for Ladybug report
Fonts by KG (pg 1-6)
Frame from My Cute Graphics

Jelly Bean Math

This post will share some jelly bean things we have been doing this week in KC kindergarten. 

This is an excellent book called  How Many Jelly Beans? Each page shows you an amount of jelly beans and on the last page, there are a million jelly beans. The kids LOVE this book. Special thanks to my friend Laura, who shared this book with me.

Here are Some Jelly Bean Math Problems 

 Shared Reading

This is a poem we have been learning about jelly beans. 

here for downloads

by KG 

Thinking Maps Thursday

We continue to learn about shapes this week. You can see some of the maps we made below!

Comparing Shapes
{Double Bubble}

The middle is how the shapes are alike. The bubbles on the outside are how they are different.

Describing a Shape {Bubble Maps}

The students worked in small groups describing the different shape in their bubble. A Bubble Map can be tricky for Kindergarten because using JUST describing words is difficult. They did not have to fill up every circle, and they could add circles too.

Four sides, red, long, pointy

2 D shape, red, four sides

 pointy, diamond, is blue

Six sides, pointy, make shapes 

pointy, four sides

Click here for templates

Fill The Hexagon

This week we have learned the game Fill the Hexagon. This Brace Map below was a perfect follow-up lesson to this game. This game comes from TERC Investigations. The kids roll a dice and put that shape on the board. Each child has their board. The goal is to fill up the hexagons first. 

Hexagon