Monday, April 29, 2019

#28 May Nature Connections

#28 May Nature Connections


The month of April going into May has been filled with so many rain showers. It is getting rid of the leftover snow. But I do hope the saying April showers bring May flowers! I would love to have a nice sunny graduation filled with green grass and flowers.


Picture(s) of the Month:


The first three pictures I felt helped to welcome in spring, baby goats!! I went to a local farm over the weekend and they had over 34 baby goats that you could hold, play with and cuddle! Note for next time your rain jacket will smell like goat if you don't wash it after..

This last picture is of a baby that fell asleep in my arms for over an hour. The little buddy was passed out! When we had to leave he really didn't want to be put down. 



These pictures are from one of our clients houses on the water, it's an old 1800's farm house and you have to walk down the field to get to the water and the dock, where they have a mooring for their sailboat in the summer. I walked the shore line for about a mile and you can see in the last picture some of the sea goodies that I found along the way to add to my collection. It was definitely a great day for finding!
Here is a google maps overview, in the corner you can see the farmhouse and in the left hand side you can see the dock.


Relax with a good book...
When I was going through the pages for May, under this section it mentioned the book Redwall By Brian Jacques. I had an instant flashback from when I was in elementary school. I remember one of my teachers had found this book in the school library and said that I might enjoy it. And boy did I ever! Not to mention that around that time Redwall became a TV show for kids and I just knew I had to try to find the book to read a little bit of it and watch an episode of the show. So many good memories came flooding back to me!

And in case you wanted to know what the tv show looked like I managed to find a link to the first episode!




What is May Day?
Me being the history geek that I am decided to look up what the history of May day came from and the importance it had for the ancient Celts.

The Celts of the British Isles believed that May 1st was the most important day of the year. And this was when the festival of Beltane was held. This May Day festival was thought to  divide the year in half, between the light and the dark. Symbolic fire was one of the main rituals of the festival, this was helping to celebrate the return of life and fertility to the world.


What most of us today know about May Day is the Maypole Dance, this was another popular tradition from May Day. Although the exact origins of the maypole remain unknown, the annual traditions surrounding it can be traced all the way back to the medieval times and some are still celebrated today. Villagers would enter into the woods to find a Maypole that was to be set up fro the day in small towns. The days festivities involved merriment, as people would dance around the pole covering it in colorful streamers and ribbons.


With your students you can create your own classroom Maypole and dance together


Books:






Friday, April 26, 2019

#27 How did this get in my lunchbox?

#27 How did this get in my lunchbox?




Our class was put into groups and we had to make posters on how different food would get into a child's lunchbox.




Books on eating healthy:



Books on health:



Websites, games and videos:


 



Activities:



Friday, April 19, 2019

#26 Kapok Tree and Other Environmental Science Activities

#26 Kapok Tree and Other Environmental Science Activities




Reenactment of The Great Kapok Tree
(Source: Dr. Mellisa Clawson)
Objectives:
·      Children will engage in a whole group setting while acting out the story of The Great Kapok Tree
·      Children will practice reading aloud assigned roles when preforming The Great Kapok Tree
·      Children will explore the diverse ecosystem and animals within the Rain forest as the story is read aloud and acted out.
Materials:
·      The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry
·      Markers
·      Dowels
·      Construction Paper
·      Scissor
·      Glue
Introduction to Activity:
·      Discuss the Rain forest and the animals within the ecosystem  
·      Read the Great Kapok Tree
·      Why the Kapok was important to the animals and then assign children their roles
Description of Activity
Children will have read The Great Kapok Tree aloud with the teacher. Children will create props such as the tree porcupines, a boa, butterflies, Kapok Tree, and more. Once props have been created children will act out their assigned parts to create the story of the Great Kapok Tree.  Restate the question to the class why the Kapok was important to the animals within the Rain forest.
Sample Inclusive Practices:
·      Adaptive Creative Materials (markers, crayons, etc.)
·      Glue Sticks  
·      Adaptive Scissors
·      Accessible Area within the classroom to act as a stage
Specific Learning Outcomes
·      Each child will write or draw at least two animals that live in the Kapok Tree inside a science journal
Additional Related Activities:
·      Feathers in Oil  
·      Read the Lorax by Dr. Seuss




Building a habitat for Dinosaurs


For this activity we were given colorful sand, shells, Popsicle sticks, clay and dinosaurs. We had to crate a habitat out of those materials for the two dinosaurs that we were given. My group decided to take a sand dollar to create a house for one dinosaur and use shells and a sea star for the other.


Making a Dam




For this activity we were given materials with the objective to make sure that no water could go through our dam and get the sand on the other side wet. My group used clay and Popsicle sticks to keep the water back. We made a wall of Popsicle sticks supported with clay and then we made a wall of clay and pushed it into the paper plate so that absolutely no water could get through. And it worked! Our group was the only one who's dam didn't let any water through.


Books:





Websites, games and videos:


SwitchZoo Habitat Game


 




Activities: