Week 2 with the 4s - What a difference a year makes

KELDA:
Week 2 with the 4s! 

Oh man, the difference in these kids from this year to last is incredible. So much focus and concentration. They are really eager to "do school" and learn. I've been so impressed with Ms. Addison, who is amazingly detail-oriented and helpful. Mr. Noah is such a sweet, earnest guy who loves books and pool time. And my Mr. Jack - it's the best job in the world watching and guiding him at this time in his life where it feels like he is growing right before my eyes. 

DAY 1:

Watching a video of the story of Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego (p.s., my big kitchen table is in the drying process of a new stain job, so the kids huddled around this little thing all week:)). 

Experiments! Such a hit this week. We started by talking about what a scientist is and what experiments and predictions are. After pouring whole milk into a bowl and dotting at four corners with different colored food coloring we drew our predictions of what the experiment would do. 

The plan I read about called for soaking a Q-tip in dish soap and then dipping that into the center of the milk. I think something cool was supposed to happen - it didn't. But the kids didn't care and they had fun swirling the milk to make it change colors.

Math: We brought out the animal counters and used them for various activities. Each kid took and handful and we guessed who had the most; we made patterns (parades) and paired animals off two-by-two. 

Next, we made dough to create molds with our animals (2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 cup water)

The kids pressed the animals into their dough to made molds, which I cooked in the microwave 2 minutes each to harden (we planned to paint them that day but ran out of time...moved to Day 2). 

These CVC puzzle are AWESOME. The kids loved them - I brought them out both days this week. 

After school it was time for some gross motor skill development in the pool! 

DAY 2:

Painting our molds with watercolors. 

Ok, taking pics when you are also teaching is hard! Here are the Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego puppets we made. We acted out the story, too, which was fun for the kids. 

And because it was so popular, it's another science experiment! Making predictions for our crystal experiment.

This crystal experiment and the color volcano (next) are from an awesome kit Lindsay got Jack for his birthday. The kids loved it. 

Color volcanos 

Building the volcano base... 

...and checking out our test tube crystals. 

More CVC puzzles.

Again, because I can't take pics and teach at the same time, here is the "after" of our character lesson for "Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type. I read aloud a phrase or action from each character and the kids had to identify which one it belonged to by placing stickers on the picture. We also played a fun board game which tested their comprehension of the story (both activities found on PBS.org).

The crystals! The kids got to play with them once they had done their business. 

And the finished molds :)