Our 5 senses are typically the focus of science instruction early in Kindergarten. This form poem would be an easy way to apply what students are learning by writing a class poem. For older students it would be a good opportunity to encourage them to use detailed descriptive language.
Fall, fall, what does it look like?
Fall looks like...
Fall, fall, what does it sound like?
Fall sounds like...
Fall, fall, what does it smell like?
Fall smells like ...
Fall, fall what does it taste like?
Fall tastes like...
Fall sensory poems are also an enjoyable way to teach onomatopoeia (written sounds). It is the perfect season for: Crunch! Crackle! Hoot!
Haiku is a lovely way to teach children about syllable structure. While it was a bit tricky for my students yet in second grade it is a good opportunity to practice as a group. Most students third grade and older should be ready to take on the haiku challenge independently. Perhaps it would be best to begin by providing a seasonal object (apple, pumpkin, leaf, scarecrow) for students to focus their poem on.
For those unfamiliar with Haiku, the structure is as follows:
5 syllables
7 syllables
5 syllables
the scarecrows stand tall
intimidating the crows
weathering the chill
{terribly lame I realize, but it gives you the idea...by the way, it would be fun if you'd share your own fall haiku in the comments today!!!}
At the beginning of the year in my second grade class the students enjoyed writing Fall is form poems to learn about the differences between nouns and verbs. After writing their poems the students choose whether to present their poems in song, with actions, or with illustrations.
Fall is…
Noun, verb
Noun, verb
Noun, verb
{allow the students to create as many combinations as they want}
adjective
Example:
Fall is
cider simmering
pumpkins glowing
leaves dancing
magical
For upper elementary aged students a Fall acrostic poem would be appropriate. After brainstorming seasonal words students may creatively assemble their acrostic.
The Fantastic Five got scientific with their thematic lessons as well. They are learning about static with some little ghosts.
I have seen many posts on neat leaf rubbing activities, but this suggestion from Faith Full Mama for leaf pounding really grabbed my attention.
Okay, one bonus feature this week because I am excited to try this mess with my 4! Seriously, check out the spaghetti spider webs from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas.
It's your turn!
Please remember these rules:
~Post an Ah-Ha moment, an experiment, learning game, field trip, whatever you're currently working on, your child's fridge worthy artwork, handmade gifts, or anything holiday related.
~Direct link to your post, not your home page.
~Include a link back to us or our link button in your post.
~If you come back and your link is missing, double check to make sure you've followed the directions!
~Most importantly, please try to visit and comment on at least three links. Spread the comment love and make someone's day!
Today we are going to explore some Movement and Music with our Skeletons.
Hi, this is Jedda from This Little Project. I always like to do some body awareness for my kids at this time of year when skeletons are hanging all over the place. When my kids realized that they have skeletons and that they were part of the body that made it moved they weren't so scary :) Below are movies and activities to help you experience and learn about the bones in your body.
This little movie will get you started at looking at where your bones are:
If you want to learn the "real" names of the bones, my niece sings a song with the different bones ( to the tune of Macarena) that will help you can learn some of the real names of the bones. Click Here and it will take you to the movie. She doesn't point to each bone in the movie--but you can while you sing it!
This next music piece (In the Hall of the Mountain King) is fun to dance to at this time of year. The first part of the music is so quiet that you can hardly hear it. Start with everyone in a circle and tip toe your skeletons around as close to the ground as you can. As the music grows louder and faster you can grow taller and walk faster and faster around the circle.
In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg (from Peer Gynt).
Kids LOVE this game and it's a great way to teach about dynamics and tempo in music as well as a fun way to explore the idea of their bones moving while they dance/run around.
This song is about skeletons dancing around. What kinds of shapes can you make with your skeletons while you dance around?
Dance Macabre by Saint-Saens, a french composer:
Fun songs for learning about bones:
Use the hokey pokey with the names of the bone instead.
Thanks for joining in with me today for some great music and movement!
I hope that you find joy learning about music and movement and dance with your children and students!
If you would like more ideas on what you can do to learn and share music with kids, come visit my blog, This Little Project. The first Monday of the month is always about music!
If you missed the past countries in this Music and Movement series, here are the links for the other countries we have explored together: Mexico, China, Ireland , USA, France, and Scotland!
Over the Moon put together a creative thematic unit about Gnomes that is full of fun learning opportunities!
Raising Genius Fish suggested many preschool academic activities using leaves.
Our Creative Day combined crayons and creativity with some spelling practice.
It's your turn!
Please remember these rules:
~Post an Ah-Ha moment, an experiment, learning game, field trip, whatever you're currently working on, your child's fridge worthy artwork, handmade gifts, or anything holiday related.
~Direct link to your post, not your home page.
~Include a link back to us or our link button in your post.
~If you come back and your link is missing, double check to make sure you've followed the directions!
~Most importantly, please try to visit and comment on at least three links. Spread the comment love and make someone's day!
There is something about October, or maybe the full moon over our house and the way my kids have been behaving, that has me thinking about Where the Wild Things Are.
Making Learning Fun has downloads for toilet paper characters of many of the Wild Thing favorites.
We have been experiencing uncharacteristically warm weather for the season which has encouraged a few extra beach visits, bike rides, and bubble blowing sessions. However, from the looks of the piles of fallen leaves covering our front lawn it really is time for me to let leaves, pumpkins, and apples lead our learning before the lawn is covered with snow! With that in mind, here are a few scientific experiments using fall leaves.
The Geek Mom put together an experiment to find the colors hidden in leaves.
This month's topic is addition. I am just finishing up my addition unit and one of the most important addition strategies is "counting on". Here's the basis of it:
This sure does beat putting 6 on your fingers and 5 on your fingers....then, realizing you don't have anymore fingers! :) So hence the reason for putting the biggest number in your head first!
I made a fun game to help my students practice counting on.
Supplies:
Counting on cupcakes {copy on cardstock, cut, laminate}
Counting on cupcakes recording sheet
Procedure:
1. In pairs, one student chooses a card. They come up with the number sentence that would coincide with the card and write it down.
2. Both players put the greatest number in their head and the smallest number on their fingers and count on. They write the sum.
3. Then, the student who chose a card can check their answer by using their counting on cupcake card. They touch the number and say it, then they touch each cupcake and count on.
4. The next student can choose a card and continue playing.
This suggestion on Meremade to assemble a clock on a white board is intriguing.
Jada Roo Can Do linked up last week with several interesting fall tray activities.
My Shae Noel filled a post with fun and educational activities for Halloween (also includes links to many of the materials).
It's your turn!
Please remember these rules:
~Post an Ah-Ha moment, an experiment, learning game, field trip, whatever you're currently working on, your child's fridge worthy artwork, handmade gifts, or anything holiday related.
~Direct link to your post, not your home page.
~Include a link back to us or our link button in your post.
~If you come back and your link is missing, double check to make sure you've followed the directions!
~Most importantly, please try to visit and comment on at least three links. Spread the comment love and make someone's day!
or make a 9, you can easily adapt this to any number you want. This is somewhat influenced by my CGI training when I was teaching (Cognitively Guided Instruction). The theory behind that was to let the kids find different ways to solve the same problem.
I gave my kids a target number to find, so far this week we've done 10 and 9. This coming week we're going to try other numbers. Then they used their math blocks to see what combinations of numbers could be used to add up to 10. For the sake of this activity I only allowed 2 addends, but obviously you're only limited by your rules.
After we did this I remembered an activity we used to do when I was teaching 3rd grade, and the kids were given the day of the month and had to find different ways to find the number, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, or multi-step problems. This is a great way to introduce kids to the concept of multi-step problems without them becoming afraid of it because it just seems like play to them.
I made a super simple printable for anyone who is interested, but quite frankly you can just as easily give them a sheet of paper with the number written at the top.
Have you had any math activities that were a big hit for you?
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