How about a little bit of Science...??

The county that I work for has put a HUGE emphasis on Science this year!  It is for good reason, (science being the second indicator for AYP) but a little much for kindergarten in my opinion.  We do science all the time but it is usually integrated into reading and math - so I am finding it hard to have a separate science time daily - but I am slowly learning and getting used to the idea.  This year we are required to spend 40 minutes daily on Science and log the minutes and what we teach.  To be accountable for these minutes our children have Science Interactive Notebooks (Science Journals) to show that we did in fact teach what we logged.

You can find the Journal cover HERE!

  

Where do I even begin... :) 

I love the "Journal" idea - so much so, that we have a Math Journal, a Morning Work Journal, a writing Journal and now a Science Journal!!  6 weeks into school and we have all pretty much learned most of us have learned how to find the first clean page in any journal!  Why is this skill always so hard to teach??  If there are any tricks to this PLEASE SHARE!!! :)  So our first entry into our notebooks was about the 5 Senses.  We did a simple picture sort Flip book and glued that baby right in the journal, added the "secret code" and ta da!!! Our first entry done!!  Well, that wasn't too bad - I think we can do this! :) 

 Another thing the county has asked us to do are Common Science Assessments for each Unit.  This shouldn't be too hard either.  I have some very creative and helpful colleagues on my team so together we should be able to do this with out any problems. Here is the first assessment that we gave along with the rubric we used.  One of those creative colleagues created the actual assessment for us and was happy to let me share it with you.  I did the rubric for us - TEAMWORK!! :) 

Click HERE for the assessment.

Click HERE for the Rubric.

I will update how our Science block is going throughout the year.  Next week are are doing Deanna Jumps solid and liquid activity - Making ice cream!! :)  That should be fun!!   

Now to kind of switch gears a little - I will be starting a Unit on the Farm next week and I am really excited!!  I kind of introduced the Farm on Friday and just asked some simple questions to see what kind of background knowledge they had.  Did you know that elephants live on the farm???  Needless to say we are going to learn A LOT in the next couple weeks!  

I have a very creative teammate and friend at school who really should start her own blog (hint hint Jayme Horner)!!!!  She creates some of the cutest stuff!  Along with making the 5 Senses Assessment, she made some cute math and literacy games for us to do during our Farm Unit.  I can't wait to use them and I know my kiddo's will love using them!!  Again, she was kind enough to allow me to share her work with you!

Yay!!

Here is a 

Barn/Haystack Ten Frame Matching Game(1-10):

 

Click HERE

and a Farm Animal Beginning Sound Match - you have to match the picture to the animal on the mat that has the same beginning sound. :)  

Click HERE

And she even made a Response sheet that is differentiated!  See what I mean?? Awesome!!! 

You can find it HERE

I'm feeling like I am forgetting to post something...but I'm hoping that I'm not!! 

Have a great Sunday!!