Why is the Statue of Liberty Green?

Science Goggles On... Check!

Earlier in the week we discussed the Statue of Liberty. Where it's located, what it looks like, why it was built, etc. To further our interest in this symbol of freedom and democracy, we pondered on why the statue of liberty is green. The kiddos thought maybe it was just old or that people were making it dirty with trash. 

I then passed a penny around the table and asked the kiddos what it looked like. Before I even mentioned the Statue of Liberty being related to the penny, they noticed that the penny I passed around was a tint of green! "The Statue of Liberty is made of a penny Ms. Kylie!" Oh the comments that make my day!! We talked about the penny I passed around being very old (made prior to 1980) and that it was exposed to oxygen in the air for a very long time. Once copper is exposed to the oxygen in the air for an extended period of time, it turns to a hint of green (or described as dull). 

Before conducting our experiment, we colored in three pennies on "Our Penny Experiment" worksheet. We then mixed the salt/vinegar solution. Placed the penny in the solution for 10 seconds. The kiddos were AMAZED at what they saw. "Ohhhhh WOW" "It's so clean Ms. Kylie." "We should do this to the Statue of Liberty!" #I LOVE MY JOB! We then completed "Our Penny Experiment" worksheet by coloring the pennies after our solution and answering the question! We all had a great time with this penny experiment. :)

George Washington's Favorite Food...

You Scream, I Scream, George Washington Screamed for Ice Cream...

Yesterday we discussed our first United States president, Mr. George Washington!! We made a bubble map of our favorite facts about George Washington. Some of the kiddos favorite facts were he was 6 feet 2 inches and weighed around 175 pounds, he liked ice cream, and he had adopted children. We made a fun paper plate portrait of him and wrote our most favorite fact about him! 

Today we made one of George Washington's favorite food... ICE CREAM!! We put milk, vanilla, and sugar into a quart size bag then put that bag into a gallon size bag that had ice and salt in it! The kids grabbed a partner and shook the bags until they literally fell to the ground! Luckily, we only had one slight leak out of all seven bags! My goal was to take pictures of the kiddos shaking the ice cream, but I was only able to take pictures of them eating the ice cream... Sorry!! 

THE EARTH HAS A FEVER!

Oh Mother Earth...

Mother Earth chatted with our class today... well me "acting" as Mother Earth! I put my mask on and told the kiddos to reach down and touch our earth! Jump! Roll! Dive! Dance! Dig! I then asked for them to point out my oceans and land. We discussed forests, mountains, rivers, etc. What earth felt and smelt like. 

We then discussed why earth has a fever! Factories, cars, and garbage. We then discussed how we could help Mother Earth! The kiddos came up with some wonderful ideas. Some students mentioned taking one car as a family to work/school, no littering, and turning electronics off when you're not using them! 

I then linked this lesson to the wildfires in the west. We identified the states in the west and pondered on why wildfires are happening so often lately! I showed pictures of the wildfires and firemen working hard to put them out. The kiddos were very concerned when we discussed the fires destroying homes! They asked me if we could help and if the wildfires were getting close to family.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Making our own Chicka Chicka Boom Boom...

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom written by Bill Martin and John Archambault is one of my favorite children books. This book has lower case letters climb a coconut tree in alphabetical order, until the tree bends so much that the letters fall to the ground! Capital letters then come to save them. This book also offers a fun little rhyming structure that they LOVED! After reading this book, I had our kiddos create their own Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! I gave them a coconut tree worksheet, colorful letters A-Z and a glue stick. They had a blast creating them!    

Graphing the Daily Question

Taking it a step further...

One of our standards for kindergarten mathematics is graphing, so I decided to turn our daily question into a graphing experience! I believe it's important to take standards and connect them to real life situations. If students are able to connect real life situations to their studies, students will be able to obtain a deeper understanding; therefore creating a more meaningful learning experience! 

Our daily question for today: What is your Favorite Color?

After I created and labeled the graph, we discussed the importance of each component. We then collected our data and displayed it on a t-chart. Once we were done collecting data, we created our bar graph! I then asked students several questions about the graph! Luckily, my favorite color won- GO PINK! ;)  

Happy Birthday, My Friend

Happy Birthday, My Friend!!

"If we didn't have birthdays, you wouldn't be you. If you'd never been born, well then what would you do? If you'd never been born, well then what would you be? You might be a fish! Or a toad in a tree! You might be a doorknob! Or three baked potatoes! You might be a bag full of hard green tomatoes. Or worse that all that... Why, you might be a WASN'T! A Wasn't has no fun at all. No, he doesn't. A Wasn't just isn't. He just isn't present. But you, You ARE YOU! And, now isn't that pleasant!"

-Dr. Seuss

Friendship Lemonade

Since I believe working as a team is SO important in creating a successful learning environment, I wanted my kiddos to do something that involved team building! So the idea that I came up with was "Friendship Lemonade!" I secretly involved mathematics into the activity too- muahaha! I had my students count all 13 lemons, then cut my lemons into halves, and had them recount. We discussed that we started with ONE WHOLE lemon and then made TWO HALVES! Each student used their strong, mighty muscles to squeeze out as much juice from their half lemon as they could into a pitcher. Once each student had a chance, we mixed cold water and a little bit of sugar to create a delicious little refresher! The kids had a FANTASTIC time and it made my room smell nice and fresh! ;) 

The Kissing Hand

Since today was the first of school, I thought reading The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn was a perfect first day story! The Kissing Hand is a story of a little raccoon who is starting school, but expresses to his mother that he is nervous to start. His mother suggests a wonderful solution to help remember that she loves him and is thinking of him, even when she's not there. 


The activity that went along with this story is called "The Kissing Flower Hand!" They had a blast creating the activity and LOVED the idea of giving their parents something so heart-warming. Students received a red and green piece of construction paper, scissors, and a crayon. They traced one of their hands on the red construction paper, cut it out, and kissed it! I then rolled up the green construction paper to create the stem for their flower. After we created the stem, we rolled up their hand to create a flower and taped it to the stem!